The Global Gender Gap Report 2014 — "2095: The year of gender equality at work, maybe"
Español I Français I Deutsch I Portugues I 日本語 I 中文 I عربي
- Nine years of the Global Gender Gap Report suggests we’ll have to wait 81 years for gender parity in the workplace
- Overall gains in gender equality worldwide since 2006 are offset by reversals in a small number of countries
- Nordic nations dominate the Global Gender Gap Index in 2014; Nicaragua, Rwanda and the Philippines all make the top 10
- Download the full report here
Saadia Zahadi photo, Aspen Ideas
Geneva, Switzerland, 28 October 2014 – In nine years of measuring the global gender gap, the world has seen only a small improvement in equality for women in the workplace. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2014, launched today, the gender gap for economic participation and opportunity now stands at 60% worldwide, having closed by 4% from 56% in 2006 when the Forum first started measuring it. Based on this trajectory, with all else remaining equal, it will take 81 years for the world to close this gap completely.
The ninth edition of the report finds that, among the 142 countries measured, the gender gap is narrowest in terms of health and survival. This gap stands at 96% globally, with 35 countries having closed the gap entirely. This includes three countries that have closed the gap in the past 12 months. The educational attainment gap is the next narrowest, standing at 94% globally. Here, 25 countries have closed the gap entirely. While the gender gap for economic participation and opportunity lags stubbornly behind, the gap for political empowerment, the fourth pillar measured, remains wider still, standing at just 21%, although this area has seen the most improvement since 2006.
With no one country having closed its overall gender gap, Nordic nations remain the most gender-equal societies in the world. Last year’s leading four nations – Iceland (1), Finland (2), Norway (3) and Sweden (4) – are joined by Denmark, which climbs from eighth place to fifth. Elsewhere in the top 10 there is considerable movement, with Nicaragua climbing four places to sixth, Rwanda entering the index for the first time at seventh, Ireland falling to eighth, the Philippines declining four places to ninth and Belgium climbing one place to tenth.
Further up the index, the United States climbs three places to 20 in 2014, after narrowing its wage gap and improving the number of women in parliamentary and ministerial level positions. Among the BRICS grouping, the highest-placed nation is South Africa (18), supported by strong scores on political participation. Brazil is next at 71, followed by Russia (75), China (87) and India (114).
Countries from Europe and Central Asia occupy 12 of the top 20 positions in the index, one less than last year. Of the region’s major economies, Germany climbs two places to 12th, France leaps from 45th to 16th, while the UK falls eight places to 26th. France’s gain is mostly due to increases in the number of women in politics, including 49% women ministers – one of the highest ratios in the world, and narrowing wage gaps. The UK’s lower position can be mainly attributed to changes in income estimates.
In Asia and the Pacific, the Philippines remains the region’s highest-ranked country, followed by New Zealand (13) and Australia (24). These nations are regional outliers, however, as only one other nation, Mongolia (42), places in the top 50. Singapore, the People’s Democratic Republic of Laos and Thailand come next in 59th, 60th and 61st place, respectively. Japan climbs one place to 104th; China falls 18 places to 87th, largely due to its very low sex ratio at birth; and India slumps to 114th, making it the lowest-ranked BRICS nation and one of the few countries where female labour force participation is shrinking.
More Articles
- Women's Health and Aging Studies Available Online; Inform Yourself and Others Concerned About Your Health
- Sheila Pepe, Textile Artist: My Neighbor’s Garden .... In Madison Square Park, NYC
- Jo Freeman Reviews: Gendered Citizenship: The Original Conflict Over the Equal Rights Amendment, 1920 – 1963
- Federal Reserve Issues A Federal Open Market Committee Statement: Committee Will Aim to Achieve Inflation Moderately Above 2% For Some Time
- Biden-Harris Administration Marks Anniversary of Americans with Disabilities Act and Announces Resources to Support Individuals with Long COVID, Increased Access to Democracy for Voters with Disabilities
- UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ: ‘I always felt like a pioneer’
- Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act; Chair Jerome H. Powell Before the Committee on Financial Services, House of Representatives
- Center for Democracy and Technology Report: Facts and Their Discontents: A Research Agenda for Online Disinformation, Race, and Gender
- Jo Freeman Reviews Stories from Trailblazing Women Lawyers: Lives in the Law by Jill Norgren
- Chair Jerome H. Powell: A Current Assessment of the Response to the Economic Fallout of this Historic Event