The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2008 was released in Geneva, Switzerland on 13 November 2008. This year’s report features an analysis of 130 different countries, covering a range of 92% of the world’s total population.
The Global Gender Gap Report ranks countries according to gender equality. The three highest ranking countries (Norway, Finland and Sweden) have closed the gender gap to a little over 80%, while the lowest ranking country (Yemen) has only closed approximately 45%.
The Report measures the size of the gender gap in four areas of inequality: (1) Economic participation and opportunity - level of participation and access to skilled employment; (2) Educational attainment- access to basic and higher-level education; (3) Political empowerment- representation in decision making institutions; (4) Health and survival- life expectancy and sex ratio.
Norway takes the top position, followed by three other Nordic nations: Finland (2), Sweden (3), and Iceland (4).
According to the report, there are overall global gains in closing the gender gaps, as one-third of the countries analysed have showed gains in their overall scores. In addition, global averages show that of the four areas of inequality, gaps have closed in three, with the exception of health and survival, which has widened.
Of the top twenty positions in this year’s rankings two are from Asia: Philippines (6) and Sri Lanka (12); and two from Africa: Lesotho (16) and Mozambique (18). The Philippines is only one of eleven nations that have been able to close the gender gap in education and health; while Sri Lanka made significant progress in the area of political empowerment.
The Report shows that there is a connection between gender gap and economic performance. Most importantly, it raises greater awareness about the opportunities that are created by reducing the gender gap.
Read the full Global Gender Gap Report 2008 (English)
