The UK is leading the way on gender equality in the workplace by employing the most women researchers in the world, a study by specialist tax relief firm Catax reveals today. 

The UK employs 197,596 women in research and development out of a total workforce of 510,980, analysis of the most recent figures by Catax found. Germany employs 173,700 female researchers, Japan 150,545, and Russia 142,290.

 

The UK has employed an extra 63,242 women researchers in the past ten years, up from 134,354. 

 

In addition, the UK is increasing its lead over second-placed Germany, boasting 28,678 more researchers in the last year, up from a lead of 27,679 in 2015. Catax analysed the ratio of women to men working in research and development across the world and found the UK has climbed two places to 11th in the past decade.  Over the past ten years, the UK’s proportion of women working in R&D has risen by 1.9% from 36.8% to 38.7%. 
 

However, Britain still trails surprisingly innovative nations such as Argentina (ranked first), Latvia (second) and Lithuania (third).

 

 

Mark Tighe, chief executive of R&D tax relief specialists Catax, said: “Britain can be proud to call itself the world’s home for female R&D professionals, with almost 200,000 women researchers choosing to work in the UK. We’re setting an example for companies around the world to follow, and doing better all the time, recently increasing the gap over our nearest competitor, Germany. But we still have more to do in terms of improving gender balance in the workforce, with Argentina, Latvia and Lithuania all having more women than men researchers. There are still six men for every four women researchers in the UK, and industry must continue to work hard to make R&D a profession that is universally accessible to all.”