Measuring the Gender Gap

07/07/2005

"Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps. The sleeper must awaken."
Frank Herbert

The World Economic Forum has developed a benchmarking tool to measure the size of the gender gap in nations. The tool takes into account whether women have achieved full equality with men in five critical areas: economic participation, economic opportunity, political empowerment, educational attainment, and health and well-being.

Using the tool, the Forum has rated 58 nations with significant markets on a scale of 1 to 7. The ten countries with the highest rankings are:

1. Sweden
2. Norway
3. Iceland
4. Denmark
5. Finland
6. New Zealand
7. Canada
8. United Kingdom
9. Germany
10. Australia

The ten countries with the lowest rankings were:
49. Venezuela
50. Greece
51. Brazil
52. Mexico
53. India
54. Korea
55. Jordan
56. Pakistan
57. Turkey
58. Egypt

To read the full report, "Women's Empowerment: Measuring the Global Gender Gap," go to:
www.weforum.org/gendergap

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