Women have comprised about 60% of the insurance industry workforce each year from 2010 to 2019, says data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). However, only 29% of senior leaders at insurance companies were women in 2019, according to Million Women Mentors' Women in Insurance Initiative (WII) consortium. Working women often encounter hurdles when climbing the career ladder, but a study commissioned by N26, a global mobile banking platform, identified where women have the most economic opportunity in the U.S. "Data has also shown that in countries where there is more gender parity, poverty drops and economies grow, while new research has shown that companies [that] foster female leadership perform better and increase profits," Adrienne Gormley, chief operating officer of N26, said in a statement. "No one can predict what the next year or even the next decade has in store for us, but one thing is clear, working towards advancing female leadership creates greater benefits for everyone." Women have been especially shaken by the pandemic, as they often are responsible for child care and caregiving responsibilities, leaving them to juggle new remote work situations and homeschooling responsibilities. "We conducted this study because we at N26 truly believe that women should have the same opportunities and freedom to be as financially independent as men, and this starts with having equal opportunity to be self-sufficient. The results show that women are still making incredible strides around the world as leaders in government, research, and the corporate world despite the uphill battles they face," Gormley said. N26 considered the following factors for the index: |

• The number of years since 1970 that a city had a female mayor.
• The share of women in local government.
• An index score based on female executives in Fortune 500 companies or local companies with the highest revenue.
• Share of active companies founded in the last 10 years by women and have received funding since 2015.
• Share of women serving as chief or senior editors at local daily newspapers.

N26 also compared 100 countries for women's economic and educational opportunities and found that the United States ranked only 48th. The U.S. was the top country for female entrepreneurs and ranked 10th for wage parity and 21st for access to education. However, the representation of women in government (60th) dragged down the overall ranking of the U.S. "The historic 2020 U.S. election held a tremendous amount of promise in regards to women's rights, equality and representation in government and ultimately has resulted in the first-ever female Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, and a record number of women elected to Congress," Gormley said. She continued, "There's no denying that that like all the countries in the study, the U.S. has a long way to go in terms of achieving gender parity; however, the changes we are seeing in U.S. election, as well as entrepreneurship offer, hope that the country is moving in the right direction and that there are potential for huge leaps forward for women in the coming years." Check out the slideshow above to see which U.S. cities had the most opportunity for women. Related: |

• The best states for women-owned businesses
• 'Professional loneliness': A woman disrupting the insurance sector
• Insurance, finance firms with the most women executives