Where is the best place in Europe for female professionals? Hampstead academic has the answer. (From Times Series)

Where is the best place in Europe for female professionals? Hampstead academic has the answer.

9:46am Thursday 14th January 2010 in

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AN academic from Hampstead Garden Suburb has written a book which shows that Latvia is the best place in Europe to get ahead as a woman.

The country is perhaps best known in Britain for being a popular stag do location but research by Gloria Moss has found that the glass ceiling complained of by professional women in Britain does not exist in the country.

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, who lives in Midholm in Hampstead Garden Suburb, conducted interviews in Latvia and found many respondents felt female staff brought different and significant skills to the workplace..

She said: “In Britain there is still a glass ceiling in relation to what many women can achieve in the workplace.

“In the UK about 35 per cent of managers are female, whereas in Latvia the figure is around 41 per cent, which is a figure approaching parity.

“I guess many people may regard Latvia as being more famous for visits of British stag dos but actually it’s a very well-balanced and forward-thinking country.

“I speak to many managers in business and normally you would expect to be speaking to a room full of men but that was not the case when I visited Riga, the Latvian capital.

“At the time 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.

“This is not always the case in the UK and other developed EU countries, where women face a multitude of challenges from male counterparts.”

She tackles the subject in a new book, ‘Profiting from Diversity’; published this month.

Ms Moss is an academic in the School of Business & Management at Buckinghamshire New University, in High Wycombe.

Profiting from Diversity: The Business Advantages and the Obstacles to Achieving Diversity is published by Palgrave Macmillan, priced at £55.

For further details go to http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?PID=281244