GM named No. 1 in the world for gender equality

General Motors is ranked DETROIT —

No. 1 in the world for gender equality in the workplace.

That’s according to the Global Report on Gender Equality released this week. GM bumped cosmetic company L’Oreal France from the top spot last year to second place.

“We have seen organizations making great strides toward improved gender equality in the past 12 months,” said Equileap CEO Diana van Maasdijk. But, she said, those in the study are still the exception.

Formed in 2016, Equileap is based in Amsterdam and London. Its second Global Report on Gender Equality looked at more than 3,000 companies in 23 countries and assessed them based on 19 criteria that included equal pay, work flexibility, gender equality in leadership, policies promoting gender equality and commitment, transparency and accountability, to list a few.

GM dominated the rankings because it’s currently the only company in the largest 20 in the United States that has both a female CEO, Mary Barra, and an equal number of women and men on its board of directors, the study said. At the time of this study GM’s board was evenly split between men and women. But in June, GM added Devin Wenig to the board, making the split six men and five women.

But the study also cited GM’s move to name Dhivya Suryadevara as its first CFO as of Sept. 1 as positive for gender diversity in leadership.