👩‍🦰 Participation

Women’s labor force participation peaks in both the world’s least and most developed countries—driven by different forces.

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Latinometrics
June 12, 2025 • Reading Time: 2 minutes

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Twenty years ago, Kofi Annan, then the Secretary-General of the United Nations, said that “There is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women.”

To Annan, most major developmental issues requiring global attention – from economic productivity, infant and maternal mortality, and nutrition to HIV prevention and education – would be best served by empowering women and improving their qualities of life.

And without any doubt, many of the world’s most developed countries tend to have women integrated in their labor forces. Europe, for example, contains global leaders like Iceland, Sweden, and Switzerland. On the flip side, least developed countries (LDCs) like Afghanistan, Somalia, and Yemen are all among the countries with the lowest participation by women in the workforce.

Opportunity or necessity? Where women work most

But the global pattern is more nuanced than a simple upward curve.

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