• 'Swedish model' outranks 'American dream'
• Nordics dominate WEF gender equality rankings

More women in the boardrooms leads to a stronger economy, the United Kingdom's Prime Minister David Cameron said as he headed to Stockholm to learn about equality from his Nordic peers.

David Cameron said there was clear evidence that ending Britain's male-dominated business culture would improve performance, AP said. And he pledged to learn lessons from Nordic and Baltic countries as he joined eight of their leaders for a summit in the Swedish capital, Stockholm.

"It's about quality, not just equality. That's why one of the things we'll be discussing in Sweden is what other countries are doing to help women become entrepreneurs and take up leading positions in business", Mr Cameron said, according to the newswire.

He added that the evidence is that there is a positive link between women in leadership and business performance.

Nordic countries dominate the World Economic Forum gender equality rankings. Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Ireland were the top five. Yemen ranked at the bottom of the 135-nation table with Chad, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia just in front.

An increased number of women in top management and boardrooms could be an improvement, since corporations with female management have proven to be more profitable.

• A Finnish survey puts the profitability of female-led companies at 10% over those led by men.

• The American research company Catalyst recently published a report that shows that out of the 353 companies surveyed, companies with the highest percentages of women board directors outperformed those with the least by 53%.

• An extensive 19-year study of 215 Fortune 500 companies, made at Pepperdine University, shows a strong correlation between a good record of promoting women into the executive suite and high profitability. Three measures of profitability were used to show that the 25 Fortune 500 firms with the best record of promoting women to high positions are between 18 and 69 percent more profitable than the median Fortune 500 firms in their industries.