Today, Twitter newsfeed caught me eye with the Euronews
tweet “Just 118 years to go to close the gender gap” and the link. Of course, I
followed the link to find out this article by Isabelle Kumar (2015).
It features Global Gender Gap Report, which was published last week at the
World Economic Forum. “The news is not terribly encouraging. There are an
additional quarter of a million women in the global workforce since 2006 and we
women now earn what men did a decade ago. At the current rate it will take 118
years to close this gap completely!” (Kumar, 2015).
Somehow this report remained largely unnoticed by most of
the major media we tend to follow. Here it is.
There’s a lot of statistics and visuals you can find in the report including
country rankings, country profiles, as well as different tools to comprehend
gender gap among 145 national economies under analysis. One of those tools is
really funny. This is age calculator that prompts you how old you will be by
the time when allegedly there should be no gender gap. For me, I need to figure
out how to stay alive till I’m 145 to see it.
Kumar (2015) says that the report takes a ten-year analyzes
the dynamic of gender positions within four major areas, i.e. economic affairs,
political field, healthcare, and education. As of now none of the countries
under analysis has closed gender gap. Some of them a pretty close though.
Guess, which countries are those? Of course, these are Nordic countries, such
as Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Sweden - the four countries with the smallest
gender gap in the world according to the Report. Denmark is a little bit behind
with its 14th position in the overall ranking.
It won’t be a big surprise for many that most of the top
countries are also high-income countries (World Bank classification) belonging
to so-called Global North. Most but not all – that can come as surprise. The
developing countries that rank relatively high according to the Report are
Rwanda, Philippines, Nicaragua, Namibia, and South Africa are among first 20
countries with the smallest gender gap. Also, Mozambique, which is among poorest
countries in the world, is ranked higher than U.S. or Luxemburg.
Another interesting way to look at the ranking is through
the lens of predominant religion. Most of the top countries are manly either
protestant or Roman Catholic or to great extent non-religious (WIN-Gallup
International, 2012). The first Orthodox Christian country to appear on the
ranking is Moldova with 26th position. The first Muslim country on
the list, i.e. Kazakhstan, is ranked 47. At the same time China, which is labeled
as the most atheistic country in the world, is far from being advanced in
gender issues with its 91st position. In the 20 countries ranked the
lowest majority of the population are Muslim. Just saying.
Kumar, I. (2015). Just 118 years to go to close the gender
gap. Euronews. Retrieved from http://www.euronews.com/2015/11/23/just-118-years-to-go-to-close-the-gender-gap/
WIN-Gallup International. (2012). Global index of religiosity and atheism – 2012. Retrieved from http://www.wingia.com/web/files/news/14/file/14.pdf
World Economic Forum. (2015). The Global Gender Gap Report 2015. Retrieved from http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2015/#read
Mila, this is really interesting information. I would love to see a chart that shows the gender wage gap alongside which countries have paid maternity leave and/or childcare. It's also fascinating to see that developing countries like Nicaragua and Namibia are so much higher than some Western countries (I was disappointed, though not surprised to see how low the USA ranked)
ReplyDeleteThere is obvious utility in equating wages with equality, but the perils of doing this are scarier than the neatness we achieve in being able to put countries on a ordered list. I know folks who research international issues need this type of information to influence policy and explicate agendas, but soft skills, productive work of community and household management, informal sectors of commerce, intermediate childbirth and childrearing all vary so widely across countries and classes that the utility of these measures dissolve. Perhaps?
ReplyDeleteMila, I think this is a very important post you have made. I have to admit, I have been resistant to joining Twitter for many years seeing it as simply a series of status updates, for which I can use Facebook for. But alas, you MIGHT have changed my mind. It is refreshing to know just how educational Twitter can be instead of purely for entertainment.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the wage gap issue, I mean wow. "Just saying" is right! Like Erin I was disappointed and not surprised that the USA was ranked so low. Also like you, I have to live to 143 to see even pay for my hard work. I find it most interesting the four major areas in which gender positions are analyzed: economic affairs, political field, healthcare, and education. Of these areas, I might consider economic affairs and political field to be primarily male-dominated fields, whereas with education, it is definitely female-dominated. Healthcare can be sticky though because it depends on what portion of healthcare you are analyzing- nurses or doctors? It could go either way. But I mostly wonder how they came to narrow in on these specific four areas. Surely there are more areas worthy of looking into.