The gap in the field of education has widened in 22 percent of surveyed countries since 2006. The chart is topped by Iceland, Norway and Finland.
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In South Asia, Bangladesh ranked at 64th, India improved to 108th from last year’s 114th, Nepal ranked 110th, Maldives at 113, Bhutan at 118, and Pakistan ranked in the bottom at 144th.
Canada ranked 30 out of 145 countries listed in the 2015 Global Gender Gap index, released Thursday – dropping 11 spots from 19 spot in 2014. The report includes as well the latest research on the benefits of gender equality from a variety of sectors, the current use of policy tools and business practices, and future implications for business leaders and policy-makers, including new findings in the context of disruptions to labour markets.
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Progress on closing the full-time gender pay gap has slowed dramatically over the last few years”. The lowest performing countries from the region are Malta (104), Armenia (105) and Turkey (130) which lost five places despite a slight score increase as other countries moved ahead faster.
The report noted that despite an additional quarter of a billion women entering the global workforce since 2006, wage inequality persists, with women only now earning what men did a decade ago. Index scores can be interpreted as the percentage of the gap that has been closed between women and men, the Forum said in its statement.
The report also highlighted a marked lack of correlation between getting more women in education and their ability “to earn a living through skilled or leadership roles”. In 2015, there was a very small narrowing of the gap, which has left it nearly unchanged.
In Asia and the Pacific, the countries which made it to the top 10 aside from the Philippines and New Zealand were Australia, Lao PDR, Singapore, Mongolia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.
Ms Cunningham said the number of women in work in Scotland is “also at record levels” as she stressed: “While the gender pay gap is lower than the rest of the United Kingdom, we realise there is more work to do”.
The Global Gender Gap Index ranks 145 countries on the gap between women and men on health, education, economic and political indicators.
Ironically, even as a woman who was once a part of President Obama’s cabinet now runs for president, the report’s authors attributed the lower US ranking “mostly due to a decrease on its political empowerment score”, finding that the portion of women with cabinet positions declined from 32 percent to 26 percent.
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Earnings aren’t equal anywhere: There’s no country in the entire world where a woman earns as much as a man for doing the same job.
