--- title: U.S. Female Leadership Rankings Fall Behind Other Countries description: We're not even close to the top canonical: https://time.com/3684249/u-s-women-leadership-ranking-is-pathetic-compared-to-other-countries/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-27T20:25:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:39.949Z og:title: U.S. Female Leadership Rankings Fall Behind Other Countries og:description: We're not even close to the top og:url: https://time.com/3684249/u-s-women-leadership-ranking-is-pathetic-compared-to-other-countries/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38ecad1f809c74da/69877c38428a9e7a17cc6d29/congress-women.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2100 og:image:height: 1181 og:image:alt: Democratic Women og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.S. Female Leadership Rankings Fall Behind Other Countries twitter:description: We're not even close to the top twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38ecad1f809c74da/69877c38428a9e7a17cc6d29/congress-women.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # U.S. Women Leadership Ranking is Pathetic Compared to Other Countries  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Jan 27, 2015 8:25 PM UTC  House Democratic women of the 114th Congress including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, pose for a picture on the House steps of the Capitol, Jan. 7, 2015. House Democratic women of the 114th Congress including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, pose for a picture on the House steps of the Capitol, Jan. 7, 2015.Tom Williams—CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Jan 27, 2015 8:25 PM UTC When it comes to women in leadership roles, the U.S. isn’t cutting it. According to a new comparison by [Pew, ](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/01/26/despite-progress-u-s-still-lags-many-nations-in-women-leadership/)the U.S. ranks 33rd out of 49 high-income countries when it comes to women in the national legislature (20% of the House and Senate are women). When they expanded the comparison to 137 countries, the U.S. dropped to 83rd (these calculations were made were using data from mid-2014, but even when the most recent Congressional elections are taken into consideration, the U.S. only rises to 75th place.) We did a little better when it comes to women in cabinet or government managerial positions: the U.S. ranked 25th out of 141 countries, and when the pool was narrowed to high-income countries, we tied for 12th place with Canada. Pew also tracked “legislators, senior officials, and managers,” a category which includes corporate leaders, heads of nonprofits or unions, and policymakers. Among high-income countries, the U.S. was tied with Barbados, Tobago, and Trinidad for fourth place, but when the comparison was expanded to 125 countries with data available, the U.S. dropped to 16th place. In other words, for all our striving, we’re not being particularly effective at electing female leaders compared to other countries. Especially compared to Rwanda, where 64% of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies are held by women. \[[Pew](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/01/26/despite-progress-u-s-still-lags-many-nations-in-women-leadership/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3684249/u-s-women-leadership-ranking-is-pathetic-compared-to-other-countries/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3684249/u-s-women-leadership-ranking-is-pathetic-compared-to-other-countries/"},"headline":"U.S. Women Leadership Ranking is Pathetic Compared to Other Countries","datePublished":"2015-01-27T20:25:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:39.949Z","description":"We're not even close to the top","url":"https://time.com/3684249/u-s-women-leadership-ranking-is-pathetic-compared-to-other-countries/","keywords":["Living","women","Government","Pew","Leadership"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38ecad1f809c74da/69877c38428a9e7a17cc6d29/congress-women.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38ecad1f809c74da/69877c38428a9e7a17cc6d29/congress-women.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Democratic Women","caption":"Democratic Women","creditText":"Tom Williams—CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3684249/u-s-women-leadership-ranking-is-pathetic-compared-to-other-countries/","name":"U.S. Women Leadership Ranking is Pathetic Compared to Other Countries"}}]}] ```