How is the world doing on gender equality? According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), the picture is mixed. The needle is moving in the right direction, according to its latest Global Gender Gap report, but incrementally. At the current rate of progress, the report finds, it will take 131 years to reach full parity between women and men, and no country has yet achieved full gender equality.
While countries in Europe and North America tend to do better than the rest of the world, there is plenty of variation. The United States, for example, ranks 43rd, with the gender gap less than 75% closed, behind countries including Colombia, Belarus, Liberia and Cabo Verde. Australia (77.8%) ranked 26th, between Mozambique and Chile, and Canada (77%) ranked 30th, between Slovenia and Barbados.
The report weighs aspects like women’s economic participation (including the gender gaps in income, employment and leadership roles), educational attainment (with measures like literacy rates and educational enrolment), health and survival (such as life expectancy) and political empowerment (female representation in parliament, ministerial positions and years with a male or female head of state).
GLOBAL GENDER REPORT – TOP 10 COUNTRIES
1. Iceland, gap 91.2%, closing 6. Germany, gap 81.5% closing
2. Norway, gap 87.9% closing 7. Nicaragua, gap 81.1% closing
3. Finland, gap 86.3% closing 8. Namibia, gap 80.2% closing
4. New Zealand, gap 85.6% closing 9. Lithuania, gap 80% closing
5. Sweden, gap 81.5% closing 10. Belgium, gap 79.6% closing
Based on this data, what do women say it’s really like to live in these top-performing countries?
ICELAND:
For the 14th year in a row, Iceland takes the top position in the WEF rankings, with it gender gap estimated to be 91.2% closed. It is the only country to have closed more than 90% of its gap.
But the rosy picture depends on what, exactly, you look at. In the WEF report, Iceland ranks first in terms of political empowerment, thanks to the fact that nearly 25 of the last 50 years have seen a female head of state and that 48% of its parliament members are female, for example. But it comes in 79th in educational attainment and 128th for female health and survival.
For people of all genders, there are other benefits to Icelandic living, too: among other things, it’s been ranked as one of the world’s happiest countries and the most peaceful.
NORWAY:
Norway ranks second in the WEF’s 2023 rankings, with a global gender gap estimated to be 87.9%. It also ranked first in the 2021 Women Peace and Security Index.
The high performance isn’t surprising, says Thea Ringseth, a Norwegian native who has lived in various parts of the country, including Oslo and Trondheim. “Gender equality is quite visible in Norway,” she explained. “There are a lot more women in positions where they usually used to be men. Outside politics, Norway performs particularly well in terms of female literacy (it ranks first), the number of female professional and technical workers (also first) and income parity (ranking sixth).
NEW ZEALAND:
New Zealand comes in fourth on the WEF report overall, making it the top performer in the Southern Hemisphere. It does particularly well in terms of political representation, with 50% of its parliament female, while female enrolment in primary and secondary education is nearly on par with male. Of course, like everywhere else, New Zealand is far from perfect. The WEF found that women earn an average $33,620 per year compared to $52,370 for men, for example, and in terms of wage equality for equal work, it ranks 37th.
NAMIBIA:
The only African country in the top 10, Namibia’s gender gap is estimated to be 80.2%, putting it in eighth position. That means it bests many countries in other parts of the world, including the United Kingdom (15th, 79.2%), Spain (18th, 79.1%), Canada (30th, 77%) and the United States (43rd, 74.8%).
The country’s ranking makes sense to Penohole Brock, a Namibian gender sensitivity trainer at the Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation. “A lot of our ministers are female. A lot of our ambassadors are female. And my work colleagues, I would say, do not face discrimination when it comes to career trajectory – it’s been a very healthy work environment in that sense,” she said. The overall picture is heading in the right direction, albeit much slower than many would want. It is also a little dangerous to take these statistics at face value since the range of components that make up the overall picture is necessarily limited. In many areas, great strides have been made but, in others, little progress has been made.
