It clearly wasn’t enough that Sweden took out the title for Most Powerful Passport in the World, now it has another accolade to add to its list.
It’s also been named the best country in the world for women.
^ That’s all the information needed to hear.
The recently released annual “Best Countries” index surveyed 9000 women from 80 countries and found the Swedes were the most chuffed with life.
Reasons for their general contentment included gender equality being a top priority with “gender-neutral” schools and gender equality hiring policies in all workplaces, free or subsidised prenatal courses, as well as one of the most generous paid parental schemes: a whopping 480 days, split between the two partners. This can be taken by the hour, day, week, month until the child turns 8. That’s about three months of leave for each parent.
^ Yeah that was our reaction too.
Education is a priority too, with two-thirds of all university degrees in Sweden awarded to women.
While not mentioned, no doubt their stylish and calming pastel Scandi-style homewares had something to do with it too.
Rounding out the top 10 list was:
2. Denmark
3. Norway
4. The Netherlands
5. Canada
6. Finland
7. Switzerland
8. Australia
9. Austria
10. New Zealand
Don’t know about you but with Australia way down in the number 8 spot it’s looking more and more like we should be learning Swedish.