World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report

The World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap index was designed and first published in 2006 to measure gender equality by collecting data based on gender gap between women and men in four key areas: education, economy, health, and politics from countries around the world. The 2019 Global Gender gap index was released on Monday, December 16th, 2019 by the World Economic Forum. Highlights from the report:

• India slips further to 112th place in the overall index as compared to 108th in the 2018 index. In the overall ranking, a total of 153 countries are ranked in the index with Yemen ranked worst at 153rd place, followed by Iraq at 152nd and Pakistan at 121st place making the bottom three.
  Among other Indian neighbours, Bangladesh ranked at 50th place, Nepal at 101st, Srilanka 102nd and China at 106th place.
• Nordic Nations, Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Sweden are at the top four places in this year’s overall ranking in the index.
• Area wise, according to the report, the political gender gap has decreased by 12 years to 95 years in 2019 as compared to 107 years in 2018. The economic gender gap has widened to 257 years in 2019 as compared to 202 years in 2018.

The issue of gender gap will be the key point of focus in Davos, Switzerland next month during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. The World Economic Forum is committed to double the percentage of women participants in their annual meeting by 2030.