Milestones
Global Gender Gap Report
By Venugopalan N (icsf@icsf.net), Programme Manager, ICSF
The new Global Gender Gap Report released by the World Economic Forum, estimates that, especially when it comes to women’s workplace equality, it will be another 217 years before we achieve gender parity. The report ranks a total of 144 countries by economic opportunities, education, political participation and health. The top five best performers in reducing the gender gap and providing equal opportunity are Iceland, Norway, Finland, Rwanda and Sweden.
Iceland’s new law, which came into existence on 1 January 2018, made it illegal to pay men more than women. Rwanda has the highest share in the world (three in every five seats) of women in parliament. Yemen, on the other hand, is currently the lowest ranked of the 144 countries measured in the report. The other countries to fall below the global average are China, Liberia and the United Arab Emirates. If the gender gap is to be reduced further, it will require men and women to embrace and promote diversity and inclusion. The insightful report advocates that to achieve sustainable development goals across the sectors, governments must need to make gender equality a critical part of their nation’s human capital development. This report will serve as a basic framework for continued benchmarking by countries on their progress towards gender equality. The report is available at: https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-gender-gap-report-2017)
