New Global Gender Gap Report

The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2010 was released last month with overall encouraging news on equality between men and women in 134 countries, representing over 93% of the world’s population. The countries were assessed on how well they divide resources and opportunities amongst male and female populations, regardless of the overall levels of these resources. 86% of countries have narrowed their gender gaps, while 14% are regressing.
The Nordic countries of Iceland (1), Norway (2), Finland (3) and Sweden (4) continue to demonstrate the greatest equality between men and women according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2010. According to the report’s index, the level of gender equality in France (46) has sunk as the number of women in ministerial positions has fallen over the past 12 months. Ireland (6), Switzerland (10), Spain (11), Germany (13) and the United Kingdom (15) are among the European countries dominating the top 20. Luxembourg (26) and Greece (58) made the biggest improvements in closing their gender gaps, climbing 37 and 27 spots respectively, owing to gains in political and economic participation. Lesotho (8) and South Africa (12) top the ranking in Africa. Lesotho has a high level of female participation in the labour force and female literacy, with more girls than boys enrolled in primary and secondary education. However, levels of healthy life expectancy remain low for both women and men. In South Africa, high numbers of women in parliament and ministerial level positions, combined with narrow gaps in education, contribute to South Africa’s top 20 position. In the Arab world, the United Arab Emirates (103) is the highest-ranking country, performing ahead of most countries in the region on education and political empowerment indicators. You can download the report, rankings, country profiles and highlights at: here