Women Political Leaders (WPL), the global network of female politicians, and Kantar, the world’s leading data, insights and consulting company, presented the Reykjavik Index for Leadership at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January 2019 and was was named ‘Best of Davos’ by WEF today.
The Reykjavik Index for Leadership measures the extent to which society is comfortable with women in leadership as compared to men in leadership.
The Index – the first of its kind to measure attitudes and perceptions of suitability for leadership – was presented by Kantar Public’s Global CEO, Dr Michelle Harrison and discussed throughout the week with panels chaired by the Founder and President of Women Political Leaders, Silvana Koch-Mehrin. These panels included:
- Former President of the European Commission, Former Prime Minister of Portugal and Non-Executive Chairman of Goldman Sachs, Jose Manuel Barroso;
- Former Prime Minister of New Zealand and member of Women Political Leaders’ Global Advisory Board, Helen Clark;
- CEO and Member of the Advisory Board of Merck Healthcare, Belen Garijo;
- Member of the Board for Integrity and Legal Affairs, Volkswagen AG, Hiltrud Werner;
- President of Legal and Corporate Affairs, Salesforce, Amy Weaver;
- Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security of the African Union Commission, Bineta Diop;
- Former Vice President of the EU Commission, Board Member of Salesforce, Neelie Kroes
The average Reykjavik Index for Leadership score for the G7 in launch year is 66, with the findings showing two groupings of countries: the UK, France, Canada and USA with ‘higher’ indices and a group of three that are a step change below: Japan, Germany and Italy.
G7 Average: 66
UK: 72
France: 71
Canada: 71
USA: 70
Japan: 61
Germany: 59
Italy: 57
The Index evaluates the G7 group of nations and 20 different industries and public professions, surveying the attitudes of more than 10,000 people.