The Reykjavík Index for Leadership

The first data release for The Reykjavík Index for Leadership 2025 shows a continuing downward trend in perception of gender equality in leadership.

Developed in partnership with the Reykjavík Global Forum, The Reykjavík Index for Leadership is the measure of how women and men are perceived in terms of their suitability for leadership.

A score of 100 would mean that women and men were viewed by society as equally suitable for leadership.

As international leaders from government, business and civil society gather today, 11 November 2024, at Reykjavík Global Forum, the latest annual data from The Reykjavík Index shows a further decline in equality in terms of how society view women and men and their suitability for leadership.

Launched in 2018, with the support of the Icelandic Government, the Index measures perceptions of women and men as leaders across 23 economic sectors. The latest data released today covers the G7 group of countries together with Iceland.

From a high of 73 in 2019 to 2021, the 2024/5 score for the G7 is 68, the lowest yet recorded.

Whilst the findings show that ‘comfort’ with the idea of a female political leader in the G7 is similar to 2018 when the Reykjavik Index began, this varies across countries. In the US, only 47% of those questioned were ‘very comfortable’ with a female political leader (with research undertaken in September - October 2024). Figures are similarly low for women corporate leaders, with a G7 average of 50%.

Across the 23 sectors measured by the Index, the latest findings demonstrate an increasing polarisation within societies across the G7, characterised by competing forces of the drive to equality and a ‘backlash’ of ‘re-traditionalization’. These trends are particularly apparent amongst younger groups.

Dr Michelle Harrison, CEO of Verian and co-founder of the Index comments:

“Across many countries of the G7 we see competing forces within society in terms of attitudes to gender equality in suitability for leadership. On the one hand, perceptions of women’s suitability for leadership have increased in some sectors (banking  and finance, and natural sciences) since 2018. But since last year, we see an increase in how women are viewed as suitable for the sectors that have traditionally been viewed as ‘caring’ and ‘female’: education, healthcare, childcare. Alongside this, we see an increase in the further masculinisation of sectors that were in  the past associated with men such as defence and police, automotive manufacturing and engineering. 

What this means is, in an era of polarisation, the result is that equality for how women are perceived as leaders  has stalled. This is an era of, at best, stasis, and at worst, increasingly regressive attitudes towards women leaders”.

This year’s findings show that Iceland continues to have the highest scores of any country measured, with a Reykjavik Index of 87 compared to the G7 average of 68.

Seven years of measuring perceptions of gender equality in leadership across the G7

This is our seventh year of gathering data consistently across the G7 nations (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America).

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