SWEDEN ranked #1 in 2007 Gender Gap Index


According to the 2007 Global Gender Gap Report:
"The five Nordic countries, which also perform consistently well in the World Economic Forum’s competitiveness rankings, all continue to hold a place among the top 10, with Sweden (1), Norway (2), Finland (3), Iceland (4) and Denmark (8) in the same positions as last year. While no country has yet achieved gender equality, Sweden, Norway and Finland have all closed over 80% of the gender gap and thus serve as a useful benchmark for international comparisons.”

At the bottom of the list of 128 counties indexed are Saudia Arabia (124), Nepal (125), Pakistan (126), Chad (127) and Yeman (128).

The United Kingdom ranked 11th, Canada 18th, South Africa 20th and the United States ranked 31st just above Kazakhstan (32) and well above Russia (45) and France (51). Ranking is based on four categories: Economic Participation and Opportunities; Educational Attainment; Health and Survival; and Political Empowerment.

While the USA ranked 14th in Economic Participation and Opportunities, and 36th in Health and Survival, it came in 69th in Political Empowerment (just behind Ethiopia) and 76th in Educational Attainment.

These rankings can be interpreted in several ways. For example one possible explanation for the USA's low rating in Political Empowerment might be that women in the USA are too busy taking advantage of economic opportunities to get involved in government compared to the women of Ethiopia, the United Emirate, Zimbabwe, Tunisia and the other counties that ranked higher than the USA in Political Empowerment for women, but lower in other categories. Or perhaps there is a correlation between Educational Attainment and Political Empowerment.

The ranking for Political Empowerment is based on the ratio of women to men in parliament and in ministerial positions, and the number of years a female has held position as head of state in the past 50 years.

Sweden, which ranked # 1 overall and in Political Empowerment, has not had a female head of state since Ulrika Eleonora whose reign was 1718-1720. (See above portrait) But Swedish women have 47% representation in parliament and hold 52% of ministerial positions. The Swedish government has actually set national objectives for gender equality, which are delineated on Sweden’s official government website.

“The main objective of the government's policy is that ‘women and men shall have equal power to shape society and their own lives’. A prerequisite to accomplish this is that women and men enjoy the same opportunities, rights and obligations in all spheres of life.”

Listed among the objectives are equal pay and ending violence against women as well as “an equal distribution of unpaid care and household work. Women and men shall take the same responsibility for household work and have the same opportunities to give and receive care on equal terms.”

The objectives do not mention education, but in Sweden the educational level of women exceeds that of men.

We look forward to your comments.

For more information on what Sweden is doing to promote gender equality visit:
http://www.sweden.gov.se/sb/d/4096


To read the full Global Gender Gap Report 2007:
http://www.weforum.org/en/about/Women%20Leaders/index.htm

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