Best Place in Europe for Female Professionals: Latvia

Research by Gloria Moss has found that the glass ceiling complained of by professional women does not exist in Latvia. She has written the book, ‘Profiting from Diversity: The Business Advantages and the Obstacles to Achieving Diversity’ which shows that Latvia is the best place in Europe to get ahead as a woman. In 2006, close to 41 per cent of managers in Latvia were female – the highest proportion of women managers anywhere in the European Union. The figure exceeded the proportion of female managers in the UK by around six per cent and was significantly higher than the likes of Sweden, Ireland and Germany. Ms Moss conducted interviews in Latvia and found many respondents felt female staff brought different and significant skills to the workplace. She said, “when I visited Riga, the Latvian capital, Latvia’s President was a woman, as was the editor of the country’s main newspaper. These positions are normally a male domain. Having spoken to many female executives in Latvia the consensus was that there were no barriers to success in the workplace.”
Ms Moss is an academic in the School of Business & Management at Buckinghamshire New University, in the UK. ‘Profiting from Diversity: The Business Advantages and the Obstacles to Achieving Diversity’ is published by Palgrave Macmillan, priced at £55 or €67.

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