World Economic Forum Launches New "Gender Gap Index" Measuring Inequality Between Women And Men In 58 Countries

Geneva , Switzerland - The World Economic Forum is releasing today 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:

1) economic participation - equal remuneration for equal work;
2) economic opportunity - access to the labour market that is not restricted to low-paid, unskilled jobs;
3) political empowerment - representation of women in decision-making structures;
4) educational attainment - access to education;
5) health and well-being - access to reproductive healthcare.

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.

"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.

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

*All scores are reported on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 representing maximum gender equality.

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Note to Editors:
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.

The Executive Opinion Survey is a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum, which in 2004 polled close to 9,000 business leaders in 104 economies worldwide. The survey questionnaire is designed to capture a broad range of factors central to creating a healthy business environment, including labour practices, the quality of the country's educational system, its infrastructure and general level of institutional development. The survey also provides rare information on issues such as childcare availability and cost, the impact of maternity laws on the hiring of women, the prevalence of private sector employment of women and wage inequality.

The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas.
Incorporated as a foundation in 1971, and based in Geneva , Switzerland , the World Economic Forum is impartial and not-for-profit; it is tied to no political, partisan or national interests. (http://www.weforum.org)

For more information, please contact:
Mark Adams
Head of Media
World Economic Forum
Tel.: +41 (0) 22 869 1212
Fax: +41 (0) 22 869 1394
E-mail: mark.adams@weforum.org
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