While 85% of countries have improved their gender equality ratios over the past six years, for the rest of the world the situation is declining, most notably in several African and South American countries, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index 2011, which was released this week. The Report index assesses 135 countries, representing more than 93% of the world’s population, on how well resources and opportunities are divided amongst male and female populations. The report measures the size of the gender inequality gap in four areas:
- Economic participation and opportunity –salaries, participation and highly-skilled employment
- Education – access to basic and higher level education
- Political empowerment – representation in decision-making structures
- Health and survival – life expectancy and sex ratio
The rankings are designed to allow for effective comparisons across regions and income groups, and over time.
Global results
Nordic countries (Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) continue to hold top spots, having closed over 80% of their gender gaps, while countries at the bottom of the rankings, including Pakistan, Chad and Yemen still need to close as much as 50%. The developing world had some notable success stories. Lesotho, the Philippines and South Africa were more equal than the UK, which was 15th in the global list. Lesotho, which rose two places to 8th, is the only country in sub-Saharan Africa to have no gender gap in either education or health. The Report shows a slight decline over the last year in gender equality rankings for New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom, while gains were made in Brazil, Ethiopia, Qatar, Tanzania and Turkey.
Australia’s results
Australia’s position has steadily dropped from 15th in 2006 to its current status of 23rd. This compares with New Zealand’s ranking this year of 6, the United Kingdom at 15, United States at 16 and Canada at 17. The good news for Australian women is that within the individual areas, Australia was ranked equal first with 21 other countries in the Educational Attainment area. For the other three measures, we ranked:
- 18th in Economic Participation and Opportunity
- 38th in Political Empowerment and
- 74th in Health and Survival
While Australia excelled in the Educational Attainment area, the Index highlights the fact that it has some way to go to match the leading countries’ achievements. HerBusiness will continue to represent its community by lobbying government and publicly advocating for the better public policy, especially in the crucial areas of childcare assistance, taxation legislation and equality and work.
Are there any issues you would like to see the HerBusiness lobby for?
Please let us know by commenting on this post or emailing policy@abn.org.au.
