World Economic Forum examines gender gap

In May 2005, the World Economic Forum released a study that attempts to quantify the 'gender gap' in a number of areas, including pay and labour market access, across 58 countries. The Nordic countries are found to be those with the smallest gender gap.

On 16 May 2005, the World Economic Forum (WEF) published a report entitled Women’s empowerment: measuring the global gender gap. The study covers all 30 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and 28 'emerging markets'. It uses a large number of 'hard data' indicators drawn from international organisations and qualitative information from the Forum’s own 'executive opinion survey' to measure the size of the gap between women and men in five critical areas based on global patterns of inequality between men and women identified by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). These are:

• economic participation - equal remuneration for equal work;

• economic opportunity - access to the labour market that is not restricted to low-paid, unskilled jobs;

• political empowerment - representation of women in decision-making structures;

• educational attainment - access to education; and

• health and wellbeing - access to reproductive healthcare.

The WEF describes itself as an independent international organisation committed to 'improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas'. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the WEF is 'impartial and not-for-profit; it is tied to no political, partisan or national interests.'

European countries

The WEF study ranks Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Finland as the countries with the smallest gender gap. It finds that women in these countries have access to a wider spectrum of educational, political and work opportunities and enjoy a higher standard of living than women in other parts of the world. While the report notes that no country has managed to eliminate the gender gap, it comments that the Nordic countries have succeeded best in narrowing it, providing a 'workable model for the rest of the world'. It states: 'The experience of the Nordic countries provides a useful benchmark for comparison purposes - an excellent example of the fact that concerted efforts over time will yield lasting results.' Augusto Lopez-Claros, the chief economist and director of the global competitiveness programme at the WEF, observed that: 'These societies seem to have understood the economic incentive behind empowering women: countries that do not fully capitalise on one-half of their human resources are clearly undermining their competitive potential.'

EU countries generally rank highly in the table of the countries with the narrrowest gender gaps, with 10 EU Member States among the top 15 positions (including Sweden, Denmark and Finland). The UK ranks eighth, Germany ninth, while three of the new Member States also do well: Latvia (11th), Lithuania (12th) and Estonia (15th). These are far ahead of 'old' Member States such as Belgium (20th), Portugal (23th) and Spain (27th). Italy (45th) and Greece (50th) have the lowest ranking in the EU, reflecting low levels of political participation by women in decision-making bodies and generally poor scores in terms of opportunities, such as career advancement among female professional and technical workers.

By comparison, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic do relatively well, occupying between the 19th and 25th places. This, according to the report, reflects the longstanding ideological position that encouraged a 'worker-woman' notion of equality, despite the fact that women in these countries bore an unusually heavy burden at home and in the workplace. The candidate countries of Bulgaria and Romania come 29th and 41st overall. Notably, Bulgaria scored ahead of most EU Member States with regard to women’s economic participation.

The findings for Switzerland may be interesting. Although, occupying 34th place and thus trailing its western European neighbours, it performs well on the health and wellbeing dimension and relatively highly with regard to political empowerment. This is particularly noteworthy since women only achieved the right to vote and stand for national election in 1971.

Non-European countries

New Zealand, Canada and Australia count among the first 10 overall (in 6th, 7th and 10th places respectively), with New Zealand taking the top place with regard to the political empowerment of women. The USA lags behind western and northern European countries (between Ireland in 16th place and Costa Rica in 18th). Although the USA performs well in educational attainment, it scores poorly with regard to economic opportunity and health and wellbeing - the latter is found by the report to be compromised by meagre maternity leave, a lack of maternity leave benefits and limited government-provided childcare. Also, there are a large number of adolescents bearing children as well as a relatively high maternal mortality ratio.

In Latin America, Costa Rica (18th) occupies the leading place by a clear margin, with Mexico almost at the bottom (52nd). The large, populous Asian nations, such as India (53rd), Pakistan (56th) and Egypt (58th) hold the lowest rankings, reflecting the large disparities between men and women in all areas of the index. However, there are some exceptions. Thailand is one example, occupying first place with regard to women’s economic participation and Turkey stands in 22nd place in this area, while ranking 57th overall. India ranks well in the area of political empowerment (24th), which, the report states, is 'a development that may be taken as a good omen for the future'.

Commentary

The new study is a first attempt by the WEF to assess the current size of the gender gap in 58 countries by measuring the extent to which women have achieved equality with men in five critical areas. It highlights the 'disturbing reality' that no country has yet managed to eliminate the gender gap, although the Nordic countries are getting closer to this. They are 'leading the way in providing a quality of life almost equal to that of men', with almost comparable levels of political participation and relatively equal educational and economic opportunity and participation. Elsewhere, wide disparities exist, which sometimes confirm information gathered in other ways or counter prevailing assumptions.

The WEF states that: 'By identifying and quantifying the gender gap, we hope to provide policy-makers with a tool offering direction and focus for the work of significantly improving the economic, political and social potential of all their citizens.' It continues: 'In addition, we hope that this work provides the impetus for policy-makers to strengthen their commitment to the idea of women’s empowerment, and to concentrate the political will, energy and resources, in concert with aid agencies and civil society organisations, to make gender equality a reality.' It is undeniable that there is still a long way to go. (Beatrice Harper, IRS)