“There is a set of indicators that give us confidence that the evolution in the coming years will be positive in terms of gender equality in companies and at work”, Maria Antónia Saldanha, country manager at Mastercard, says in a statement.

Managers

Regarding the percentage of women managers of companies, Portugal takes a leading position, with 37.4%, ahead of countries such as Ireland (35.7%), France (34.6%) or Germany (29.7 %). Furthermore, in indicators such as the percentage of women in specialised and technical jobs, Portugal (52.5%) shows parity, even surpassing the percentages recorded in Denmark (50.3%), Germany (52%), Ireland (51, 4%) or Spain (49.7%).

“There are still many areas in which it is essential that we work so that we can create more opportunities for women and make a decisive contribution to reducing gender inequalities”, highlights Maria Antónia Saldanha. “This naturally involves mobilising resources for key areas such as SMEs, financial inclusion, for policies that facilitate women’s access to credit and investment, but also to resources for the development of skills, knowledge and innovation”, details Mastercard's country manager.

Financial support

Two of the areas in which Portugal is significantly below the global average, are women entrepreneurs’ access to financial products (31st), a far cry from economies such as the United Kingdom (9th), Germany (11th) or France ( 13th); and also support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), occupying the 32nd position, 14 points from Spain and 10 points from Ireland.

Despite this, with regard to business conditions, “Portugal has a better position as a result, above all, of the good quality of business management, despite being still far from the average in areas such as competitiveness, cultural perceptions of entrepreneurship and the general business framework” , stresses Mastercard.