This article originally appeared at Elite Daily

There’s certainly a lot of talk about female leaders going on. But perhaps the most unexpected news about women CEOs today isn’t about how much these women make, but rather where they work.

In Grant Thornton’s newly released International Business Report, the accounting firm surveyed about 6,600 private companies in 45 countries to determine where the most women are in senior management positions. The results were unexpected.

The places topping the list with the most females in charge are countries like Russia, Indonesia, Latvia and the Philippines, where women comprised over 40 percent of those in senior-level positions.

Russia takes home the gold for the highest proportion of women in these high-level job titles, with 43 percent. Japan lags in last with an embarrassing nine percent.

The United States ranked towards the bottom of the list with just 22 percent of women in senior management, which also falls below the dismal global average of 24 percent.

While the results might seem a little out of wack (Russia is certainlynot known for its progressive mindset these days, to say the least), economists are coming forward to say that the findings actually might make sense.

Apparently emerging markets — which include the BRICS of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — are taking advantage of thevarious growing opportunities their developing economic systems offer.

Seems like the industrialized world could learn a thing or two about ways to support women in the workforce. With 865 million women poised to enter the working world by 2020, competitive countries will have to rely on the strength of their female CEOs (and those in other top roles) to keep up.