Less than 20% of G20 public sector leaders female: E&Y

Ernst & Young's (E&Y) Worldwide Index of Women as Public Sector Leaders has exposed a wide discrepancy in the number of women in public sector leadership positions across the G20.

The research found that across the G20 less than 20% of leaders were female.

Although all countries saw men hold the majority of leadership positions, Commonwealth G20 members did comparatively well, with Canada ranked first, with 45% women leaders, followed by Australia (37%), the UK (35%) and South Africa (33.8%).

In comparison, Saudi Arabia had 0% women leaders, Japan had 2.5% and India just 7.7%.

In half of the countries, women made up the majority of public sector workers, with Russian women accounting for 71% of Russia's public sector, and women made up 48% of the G20 overall work force overall.

E&Y noted that there had been positive developments, however also warned that the global recession has led to "potentially a step back," with women making up 85% of the 74, 000 US public sector job losses in 2012.

Similarly, twice as many women as men are expected to lose their jobs in the UK over the next few years, as 710, 000 public sector jobs are cut, with the pattern expected to be repeated across Europe as female dominated sectors such as education, healthcare and social work bare the brunt of cuts.