The global gender gap slightly narrowed in 2013. This is according to a study of the World Economic Forum entitled Global Gender Gap Report 2013 which compared the status of men and women in 136 countries, including the Czech Republic. The situation improved in 86% of the 133 countries that participated in the study both in 2012 and 2013.
Specifically, the study measured gender differences in four basic areas since 2006:
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Economic participation and opportunities (salary, participation in sectors requiring high-professional qualifications)
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Education (access to education from primary to terciary)
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Political empowerment (representation in decision-making structures)
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Health and survival (life expectancy, proportion of men and women in the population)
Since 2006, 96% of the differences between men and women in terms of access to health care have vanished. The same applies to 93% of the gender differences with access to education. In 25 countries, the gender differences in access to education have disappeared completely. As far as economic and political representation differences, however, these were equalized in only 60% and 21% respectively.
Iceland is the country, for five years in a row, with the best gender representation, followed by Finland, Norway and Sweden. The Philippines entered the first five for the first time in 2013. The greatest disparity between the sexes remains in Chad, Pakistan and Yemen. The Czech Republic ranked on the 83rd place among the 136 countries surveyed. In 2006, it was on the 53rd place; in 2012 it was on the 73rd place.
As far as the economic participation and opportunities for both sexes, the Czech Republic holds the 95th place in the world. It has ranked on the 46th place in the issue of health and life expectancy and on the 79th place in the issue of political empowerment. However, we are on the first place in terms of the access to education for both sexes. This means that the Czech Republic, together with the USA, Australia, UK, France, Norway or Slovakia, managed to completely eliminate gender differences in the area of education.
The full report, including separate results of individual countries is available for download on the World Economic Forum website.
-Kk-