By Madeleine Michael
The World Economic Forum recently released its 9th Global Gender Gap Report concluded that equality is on the rise around the world.
The report measures the how close countries are to attaining gender equality. To do this, they consider factors such as whether women are able to work, and if so, how much they make compared to men, whether they are able to get an education, positions in politics, and access to health the BBC explains.
The US ranked 20 on the overall list, three places higher than last year. This is mostly due to the narrowing wage gap and the increasing number of women in politics and ministries. It ranked 4th for economic opportunity, but 54th in political opportunity.
In the United States, there is more equal pay than the rest of the world, yet overall equality is behind many other developed countries. The US “has such a strong culture of patriarchy that I think it’s harder for us to break away from it” said Hannah Elbaum, a Newton South Senior, who helped to found FEM Club.
Since 2005, 105 countries have become more equal through an increase of women able to participate in politics and the professional world.
According to the WEF, Iceland is the most equal nation for the sixth year, and the top five spots have all been claimed by Nordic Countries. After that comes Nicaragua and Rwanda, in 6th and 7th places.
Rwanda’s workforce sports a very nearly equal workforce of men and women, and women are almost as abundant as men in the clergy.
Despite Rwanda’s gains in jobs, they did not improve as much in health or education opportunities for women.
There are 25 countries that have successfully closed the gap in educational attainment between men and women. Eight of those countries, including the Philippines, Namibia, Latvia, Guyana, France, Brazil, Belize, and the Bahamas, have also closed the gap in health and mortality. Twenty-Seven more countries have attained equality in health as well.
No country has reached equality in politics or the economy.
“The obvious issue many people discuss when trying to achieve equality is pay equity, but I think it will be necessary to surpass that and truly become a social and cultural revolution in the way any gender is portrayed and perceived before equality is possible.” said Aiden Basset, Newton South Sophomore and member of FEM Club. According to NPR, the global gender gap won’t be closed for decades despite the 4% close from 56% in 2006. The gap is expected to close in approximately 81 years.
