The Reykjavik Index for Leadership revealed today measures how people feel about women in power. As well as measuring the perceived legitimacy of women or men in positions of leadership in politics and professions, it also provides a measure of how women and men differ in their views, and the extent to which they are viewed equally in terms of the suitability for positions of power.
The Reykjavik Index for Leadership for the G7 is 66 this year (a score of 100 would mean that across society there is complete agreement that women and men are equally suited to leadership in all sectors). It shows that the G7 is divided into two groups of countries:
- A group of 4 that have ‘higher’ indices: UK (72), France and Canada (71) and USA (70)
- A group of 3 that are a step change below: Japan (61), Germany (59), Italy (57)
The role of women as political and business leaders:
People were asked about how comfortable they would feel with a woman as Head of Government, and as a CEO of a major company in their country:
| Country | Proportions of people who answered that they would feel ‘very comfortable’ with a woman as head of government in their country are: | Proportions of people who answered that they would feel ‘very comfortable’ with a woman as the CEO of a major company in their country are: |
| UK | 58% (52% of men, 65% of women) | 59% (54% of men, 65% of women) |
| Canada | 57% (49% of men, 65% of women) | 59% (52% of men, 67% of women) |
| USA | 52% (45% of men, 60% of women) | 63% (55% of men, 70% of women) |
| Italy | 42% (34% of men, 49% of women) | 42% (31% of men, 54% of women) |
| France | 40% (39% of men, 42% of women) | 44% (42% of men, 45% of women) |
| Germany | 26% (23% of men, 30% of women) | 29% (23% of men, 35% of women) |
| Japan | 23% (20% of men, 26% of women) | 24% (21% of men, 28% of women) |
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