World Economic Forum Launches New “Gender Gap Index” Measuring Inequality between Women and Men in 58 Countries

16 May 2005 - Geneva, Switzerland

REPORT FINDS SWEDEN AND OTHER NORTHERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES DO BEST – THE UNITED STATES (17), SWITZERLAND (34), JAPAN (38), BRAZIL (51), INDIA (53) AND TURKEY (57) DO LESS WELL

The World Economic Forum released in May 2005  the first ever study that attempts to quantify the size of the “gender gap” in 58 countries.

Entitled Women’s Empowerment: Measuring the Global Gender Gap, the report measures the size of the gap between women and men in five critical areas based on UNIFEM’s (United Nations Development Fund for Women) findings of global patterns of inequality between men and women:


The study ranks Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Finland at the top of the list, as the countries with the smallest “gender gap.” Characterized by strongly liberal societies, with an impressive record of openness and transparency in government, and comprehensive safety nets that provide security to vulnerable groups in the population, women in these countries have access to a wider spectrum of educational, political and work opportunities and enjoy a higher standard of living than women in other parts of the world. While no country has yet managed to eliminate the gender gap, the Nordic countries have succeeded best in narrowing it and, in a very clear sense, provide a workable model for the rest of the world.

The report covers all 30 OECD countries and 28 other emerging markets. The study uses a large number of “hard data” indicators drawn from international organizations and qualitative information from the Forum’s own Executive Opinion Survey. The study measures the extent to which women have been able to achieve full equality with men in a number of critical areas.1

“The Forum has undertaken this study in order to facilitate the work of governments, aid agencies and NGOs by providing a benchmarking tool to assess the size of the gender gap in these countries, ranking them according to the level of advancement of their female population and identifying successes and failures, based on economic, political, educational and health-based criteria. Our aim is essentially to allow countries to identify their strengths and weaknesses in an area of critical importance for the development process and to provide opportunities for countries to learn from the experiences of others that have been more successful in promoting the equality of women and men,” said Augusto Lopez-Claros, Chief Economist and Director of the Global Competitiveness Programme at the World Economic Forum.


Highlights

Nordic Countries:

The Nordic countries hold the top five positions in the rankings, with Sweden leading the way. Across the five categories examined, these countries hold an impressive 19 top ten positions, with particularly high scores in the areas of health and well-being, educational attainment and political empowerment. Indeed, with scores ranging from 1 to 7, with 7 representing maximum gender equality, the Nordic countries are the only ones in the sample whose total scores are above 5.

“The experience of the Nordic countries provides a useful benchmark for comparison purposes – an excellent example of the fact that concerted efforts over time will yield lasting results. It is not surprising that the Nordic countries also occupy privileged positions in the World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness rankings – these societies seem to have understood the economic incentive behind empowering women: countries that do not fully capitalize on one-half of their human resources are clearly undermining their competitive potential,” added Lopez-Claros.

European Union:

EU countries do generally well in the rankings, with 10 EU members in the top 15 positions. Setting aside the three Nordic countries which are also EU members (Sweden, Denmark and Finland), the United Kingdom (8) and Germany (9) lead the way. However, there are considerable differences across these countries’ performance in the five categories being assessed. The United Kingdom has particularly strong scores in the areas of political empowerment (5) and educational attainment (4), while Germany’s strengths lie in political empowerment (6) and health and well-being (10). Some of the new EU members place well, with Latvia (11), Lithuania (12) and Estonia (15), well ahead of Belgium (20), Portugal (23) and Spain (27). Italy (45) and Greece (50) have the lowest rankings in the EU, reflecting low levels of political participation by women in decision-making bodies, and generally poor scores in terms of opportunities – for instance, for career advancement among female professional and technical workers.

Switzerland:

Switzerland ranks far behind its Western European neighbours, 34th on the list. Although Switzerland performs well on the health and well-being dimension (7), and relatively high on political empowerment (17) – a notable achievement for a country that gave women the right to vote and stand for national election only in 1971 – the country lags behind not only in economic participation (e.g., a low ratio of female to male earned income, low female labour force activity rates) and economic opportunity, but also in educational attainment, being one of the very few developed nations where female enrolment rates are consistently lower than male rates.

America and Australasia:

The United States (17) lags behind many Western European nations in addition to falling behind New Zealand (6), Canada (7) and Australia (10). It performs particularly well on educational attainment (8) and slightly less so on economic participation and political empowerment. However, it ranks poorly on the specific dimensions of economic opportunity and health and well-being, compromised by meagre maternity leave, the lack of maternity leave benefits and limited government-provided childcare. Moreover, its health and well-being rank is brought down, in comparison with other developed nations, by the large number of adolescents bearing children, and by a relatively high maternal mortality ratio – especially given the high number of physicians available.

Eastern and Central Europe:

Former Soviet bloc countries, such as Poland (19), Hungary (24), the Slovak (21) and Czech (25) republics do generally well, reflecting the fact that these countries for long periods of time subscribed to an ideology that encouraged a “worker-woman” notion of equality, although one in which women bore an unusually heavy burden, at home and in the workplace. China (33) ranks high in economic participation (9), but falls close to the bottom of the rankings in education (46) and political empowerment (40). The Chinese government’s gender equality objective still falls far short of expectations. Nonetheless, China remains the highest ranking nation in Asia, followed by Japan (38). The Russia Federation (31) shows similar results to those of China, boosted in the rankings by a high economic participation (3), but compromised by low political empowerment (47) and health and well-being (57).


Latin America:

Costa Rica (18) occupies first place in Latin America by a large margin, followed by Colombia (30), Uruguay (32) and Argentina (35). Peru (47), Chile (48), Venezuela (49), Brazil (51) and Mexico (52) all fare badly, due to poor performances on all five areas of this index, with the exception of the economic opportunity ranks of Chile (20) and Brazil (21). The problem here appears to be not in the lack of opportunity, once women have entered the workforce, but rather in giving them access to the educational training and basic rights, such as healthcare and political empowerment, that will enable them to join the workforce.

Asia:

Large, populous nations such as India (53), Pakistan (56), Turkey (57) and Egypt (58) hold some of the lowest positions in the rankings. Their rankings reflect large disparities between men and women on all five areas of the index: economic participation, economic opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment and health and well-being; the sole exception is India’s good score in the area of political empowerment (24), a development that may be taken as a good omen for the future.


Table 1: Rankings

Country Overall Rank Overall Score* Economic Participation Economic Opportunity Political Empowerment Educational Attainment Health and Well-being
Sweden
1
5.53
5
12
8
1
1
Norway
2
5.39
13
2
3
6
9
Iceland
3
5.32
17
7
2
7
6
Denmark
4
5.27
6
1
20
5
2
Finland
5
5.19
12
17
4
10
4
New Zealand
6
4.89
16
47
1
11
26
Canada
7
4.87
7
27
11
12
14
United Kingdom
8
4.75
21
41
5
4
28
Germany
9
4.61
20
28
6
34
10
Australia
10
4.61
15
25
22
17
18
Latvia
11
4.60
4
6
10
24
48
Lithuania
12
4.58
10
11
13
19
44
France
13
4.49
31
9
14
31
17
Netherlands
14
4.48
32
16
7
42
8
Estonia
15
4.47
8
5
30
18
46
Ireland
16
4.40
37
51
12
9
12
United States
17
4.40
19
46
19
8
42
Costa Rica
18
4.36
49
30
9
14
30
Poland
19
4.36
25
19
18
20
38
Belgium
20
4.30
35
37
25
15
16
Slovak Republic
21
4.28
14
33
29
23
35
Slovenia
22
4.25
26
15
39
22
19
Portugal
23
4.21
27
18
31
36
20
Hungary
24
4.19
30
3
28
39
40
Czech Republic
25
4.19
24
4
43
25
23
Luxembourg
26
4.15
48
8
33
21
25
Spain
27
4.13
45
34
27
35
5
Austria
28
4.13
42
22
21
38
13
Bulgaria
29
4.06
11
14
23
50
55
Colombia
30
4.06
41
38
15
13
52
Russian Federation
31
4.03
3
10
47
29
57
Uruguay
32
4.01
36
26
36
2
56
China
33
4.01
9
23
40
46
36
Switzerland
34
3.97
43
42
17
49
7
Argentina
35
3.97
55
29
26
3
54
South Africa
36
3.95
39
56
16
30
21
Israel
37
3.94
28
40
32
28
39
Japan
38
3.75
33
52
54
26
3
Bangladesh
39
3.74
18
53
42
37
37
Malaysia
40
3.70
40
36
51
32
15
Romania
41
3.70
23
31
35
51
47
Zimbabwe
42
3.66
2
57
34
52
41
Malta
43
3.65
56
43
45
16
24
Thailand
44
3.61
1
39
49
54
32
Italy
45
3.50
51
49
48
41
11
Indonesia
46
3.50
29
24
46
53
29
Peru
47
3.47
50
44
38
47
31
Chile
48
3.46
52
20
44
40
45
Venezuela
49
3.42
38
13
52
33
58
Greece
50
3.41
44
48
50
45
22
Brazil
51
3.29
46
21
57
27
53
Mexico
52
3.28
47
45
41
44
51
India
53
3.27
54
35
24
57
34
Korea
54
3.18
34
55
56
48
27
Jordan
55
2.96
58
32
58
43
43
Pakistan
56
2.90
53
54
37
58
33
Turkey
57
2.67
22
58
53
55
50
Egypt
58
2.38
57
50
55
56
49
*All scores are reported on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 representing maximum gender equality.

The Report is available free of charge online at www.weforum.org/gendergap

The authors of the Report are Augusto Lopez-Claros, Chief Economist and Director of the Global Competitiveness Programme, and Saadia Zahidi, Economist at the Global Competitiveness Programme of the World Economic Forum.

Source: World Economic Forum

 

 Saadia Zahidi, Economist at the World Economic Forum and Co-author of the "Women's Empowerment: Measuring the Global Gender Gap" study, discusses the significance of the report and the need to close the gender gap

Source: World Economic Forum



The top five spots are all occupied by Scandinavian countries. Why is the gender gap in this part of the world relatively small?

The data tells us that the Nordic countries lead the way in providing women with economic freedoms and empowering them politically in addition to offering excellent healthcare and education. For example, Denmark has the highest private sector employment of women out of the 58 countries, according to our Executive Opinion Survey, while Sweden offers the most government-provided childcare. Additionally, almost half the seats in Sweden’s parliament are occupied by women, an achievement unmatched elsewhere. Most of the Nordic countries also offer among the best maternity leave benefits in the world.

Switzerland, an OECD nation, comes 34th out of 58 countries, behind Colombia, Costa Rica and the Slovak Republic. How do you account for this?

Switzerland performs well in terms of health and well-being (7th) as well as on political empowerment (17th), a particularly notable achievement for a country that only gave women full rights to vote in 1971. However, Switzerland’s performance on the other three categories pulls down its overall rank. It is one of the few developed nations where female enrolment rates for primary, secondary and tertiary education are consistently lower than those of males, pulling down its ranking on the educational attainment category (49).

Additionally, Switzerland provides among the lowest number of weeks of maternity leave out of the 58 countries covered – this affects its ranking on the economic opportunity category (42). Finally, youth unemployment among females is much higher than that among men, women are paid far less than men for comparable work and their participation rates in the workforce are far lower than those of men, all of which significantly worsens Switzerland’s ranking on the economic participation category (43).

The World Economic Forum in Jordan 2005 meeting (20-22 May) will examine the role of women in society. How did Arab countries perform in the Global Gender Gap index?

Due to data limitations, Jordan and Egypt were the only two Arab world countries that we were able to include in the Report. While Egypt is the worst performing country out of the 58, scoring poorly on all five categories, Jordan ranks 55th out of the 58 and its relatively better rank on the economic opportunity category (32) is a sign of the economic freedoms that are increasingly available to women in the Arab world and provides hope for the future.

This is the first study of its kind to be done by the World Economic Forum. Why is this survey of the global gender gap important?

The Forum has for a number of years been committed to the advancement of women through its Women Leaders Programme. In addition, the Global Competitiveness Programme has been publishing unique data on maternity leave benefits, childcare availability and the private sector employment of women in its annual Global Competitiveness Reports for several years. In this latest study we acknowledge the clear economic incentive behind empowering women: countries that do not fully take advantage of one half of the talent in their population are misallocating their human resources and thus undermining their competitive potential. The goal of the study is to create awareness, and to provide countries with a benchmarking tool. Measuring the magnitude of the problem is a first step - we hope that governments and NGOs alike can use the rankings in our study to identify issue areas and to learn from the experiences of nations that have been more successful in narrowing the gender gap.

What were the main criteria that the 58 countries were measured against?

There were five main criteria used in the study, drawn from the findings of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM):

  • Economic participation: the number of women in the workforce and the remuneration they receive (for equal work) as compared to men.

  • Economic opportunity: captures the opportunities available to women once they are part of the workforce – this category includes unique survey data on maternity leave benefits, government-provided childcare, etc, from the World Economic Forum’s own annual Executive Opinion Survey.

  • Political empowerment: the participation of women in decision-making structures, as compared to men.

  • Educational attainment: women’s enrolment rates in primary, secondary and tertiary education.

Health and well-being: this category attempts mainly to assess the quality of reproductive healthcare available to women, given the quality of the overall healthcare services in a particular country.

What methodology is used to build the rankings?

The study combines publicly available “hard” data from international organizations and national statistics offices with unique qualitative data from the World Economic Forum’s own annual Executive Opinion Survey to create the overall rankings. The five categories of the “gender gap index” are based on the findings of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), as described above.