A recent study of women working abroad by the European Professional Women’s Network (EPWN) finds that women who moved abroad for their own job are twice as happy with their professional life as those who moved for their partner’s job (81% versus 44%). Women (or men) who move abroad for their partner’s job are often called ‘trailing spouses.’

One out of four women (24%) who followed their partner are either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their professional life.

Expat women happiest in their professional lives in France and Belgium
EPWN’s study built on an Expatica survey of expat women working in Europe,  which found that expat women in Belgium and France were the most happy with their professional lives, while women in Germany and the Netherlands were the least satisfied. Still, women had both good and bad things to say about working in all European countries.

“In Brussels, it seems especially hard to become established professionally if you’re not fluent in French and Dutch, which is obviously unlikely if you are a foreigner,” said an expat woman living in Belgium.

“Dutch people are usually polite and nice to you, ”says an expat living in the Netherlands. “But they will rarely invite you to their homes or include you in their circle of friends. My partner’s Dutch, but even with his family, I find them to be too polite, to the extent of being aloof.”

Expat women happiest living in Spain
Seventy-two percent of women polled said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their life abroad. Female expats based in Spain were happiest (81 percent), followed by Belgium (79 percent) and France (79 percent).  Interestingly, last year’s survey results had women in Spain ranked among the lowest in satisfaction.