No country has yet achieved 100% gender equality in all four areas being measured. The greatest equality between men and women remains in the Scandinavian countries. Iceland is number one (nine years in a row), followed by Norway and Finland.
Rwanda, which first entered the index in 2014 in seventh place, jumped from fifth in 2016 to fourth in 2017. Sweden fell from third to fifth place. The second five countries in the top ten are Nicaragua, Slovenia, Ireland, New Zealand and the Philippines. All these ten countries, albeit in a different order, were also in the top ten in 2016.
The biggest gender inequality remains in Yemen, Pakistan and Syria. The Czech Republic was ranked 88th in 2016 (it was in 77th place in 2016, 53th place in 2006).
Regarding economic participation and opportunities for both sexes, the Czech Republic ranks 92nd (89th place in 2016) and 91st in the field of political empowerment (85th place in 2016).
However, the Czechs are in first place in terms of access to education for both sexes and also in the category of health and survival. In both these areas, they have managed completely to eliminate gender differences, even though in the health and survival category they were in 40th place in 2016 (42nd place in 2015).
The complete study, including country-specific reports, is available for download at the World Economic Forum website.
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Article source World Economic Forum - organizer of the Davos meeting of political and business leaders