The Best Countries For Women Expats

Not everything is equal yet between the sexes. On average women earn less than men and it also seems they tend rot explore opportunities abroad less than men. But many times women do find themselves with the opportunity to work in a foreign country, and so we thought it wold be helpful to bring our audience and over on the best countries for women expats.

It’s interesting to see that in Asia only Taiwan makes the top 10 list. This is especially interesting when you think about how large the expat community is in places like Hong Kong and Singapore.

Women are more likely to be the traveling spouse than actively pursuing a career abroad, as the latest Expat Insider survey by InterNations reveals. In fact, 28% of female expats name love or their partner’s job/education as their main motivation for moving, followed by just 25% citing reasons that are related to their own career. Male expats, on the other hand, name work-related reasons most commonly (38%), while just 13% moved for love or their partner’s job/education.

InterNations the world’s largest expat community, took a look at the women that do work abroad and the countries in which they are happiest with their career.

The findings are based on the insights of 8,855 female expats that took part in one of the most extensive surveys about working and living abroad, annually conducted by InterNations. For the survey’s Working Abroad Index, several topics such as career prospects, work-life balance, and job security are factored in.

Here Are The Highlights

  • Women are less likely to move abroad for their career than men (25% vs. 38%).
  • Bahrain, Taiwan, Norway, Denmark, Luxembourg, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Malta, and Australia offer the best working life for women.
  • Women working abroad are more likely to be single and not have kids than men working abroad.

Career Women Abroad

Similar to male expats, women working abroad tend to be highly educated: about nine in ten of both women (89%) and men (85%) hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. This is despite the fact that women working abroad are on average 3.5 years younger than their male counterparts (40.1 years vs. 43.6 years).

When it comes to their personal life, the Expat Insider survey shows that just 56% of women working abroad are in a committed relationship — this is 15 percentage points lower than the share of men who are working abroad and in a relationship at the same time (71%). What is more, 63% of working female expats do not have any children, while just 47% of men say the same. “The results of the Expat Insider survey leave us with the question whether women have the same opportunities as men when it comes to combining a career abroad with family life,” says InterNations Founder and Co-CEO Malte Zeeck. However, regardless of whether this is a personal choice or not, female and male expats working are about equally satisfied with their life abroad (76% vs. 75%, respectively).

Top 10 Countries for Women to Work Abroad

  1. Czech Republic
  2. Bahrain
  3. Taiwan
  4. Norway
  5. Denmark
  6. Luxembourg
  7. New Zealand
  8. The Netherlands
  9. Malta
  10. Australia

As it turns out there aren’t too many surprises on this list of the best countries for women expats but it would be nice to see more Asian countries make the list.

Published by Editorial Team

The Asia Rising Editorial Team is made up of a multinational team of writers, content experts and journalists from around the world operating out of our Bureaus in New York, Bangkok, Toronto and while on assignment across Asia.