Women are closing the gender gap with men in health andeducation but struggle to get top jobs and salaries, data from a study of 135countries showed.
“Gaps in senior positions, wages and leadership levels stillpersist,” even in countries that promote equality in education and have a highlevel of economic integration among women, the World Economic Forum (WEF) saidin its annual Global Gender Gap Report.
The new figures were released just hours after a EuropeanUnion initiative to set a 40-percent quota for women on the boards of listedcompanies stalled because of a lack of support.
The report, which covered more than 90 percent of theworld’s population, looked at how nations distribute resources andopportunities between women and men.
It found that the Nordic countries, headed by Iceland,Finland and Norway, had done the best job of closing the gap, while Chad,Pakistan and Yemen had the worst rankings.
While almost all countries had made progress in closing thegap in healthcare and education between women and men, only 60 percent ofcountries had managed to narrow the economic gender gap and only 20 percent hadprogressed on a political level, the study said.
Of the top four global economies, the United States, Japanand Germany all made progress in closing their economic gender gap in 2012.
However, they slipped in the overall ranking, which alsolooks at health, education and politics, with Germany falling two spots to 13thplace, the United States sliding five spots to 22nd, and Japan dipping to 101stfrom 98th last year.
China, which took a step backwards when it came to closingthe economic gender gap, also fell in the overall ranking to 69th place from 66thlast year.
Greece, which ranked 82nd, registered one of the biggestfalls since 2011, when it ranked 56th -- largely owing to a change in thepercentage of women holding ministerial positions, from 31 percent in 2011 toonly six percent in 2012.
Countries such as Nicaragua (9) and Luxembourg (17) climbedup the ranking thanks to an increase in the percentage of women in parliament.
Reducing the male-female employment gap has been animportant driver of European economic growth in the last decade, the reportsaid.
It added that introducing even more equality could boost USgross domestic product by nine percent and eurozone GDP by up to 13 percent.
EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said that a move toset a 40-percent quota for women on the boards of listed companies had beendelayed amid an ongoing row over the lack of female candidates for a keyEuropean Central Bank (ECB) job.
Reding, who was scheduled to present the plan, said onTwitter: "Gender balance directive postponed," owing to insufficient supportfor the idea within the 27-member European Commission.
The delay came a day after the European Parliament'seconomic affairs committee rejected the nomination of Luxembourger Yves Merschto the ECB executive board, because it would result in an all-male board until2018.
The WEF report said that closing the global gender gap wasfundamental to economic growth and stability. It pointed out that no country inthe Middle East or north Africa featured in the top 100 of the index: thesewere regions often troubled by instability and frequently pointed to whengender inequality is discussed.
Elsewhere in Africa, however, five countries ranked in thetop 30.
By region, the Philippines (8) remained the highest-rankingcountry from Asia in the index.
With women making up 50 percent of countries' "humancapital", governments needed to find ways to benefit from their talent,insisted Saadia Zahidi, senior director at the World Economic Forum.
"If that capital is not invested in, educated orhealthy, countries are going to lose out in terms of their long-termpotential," she said.
Only six countries had showed an improvement of 10percentage points since the report launched seven years ago, Zahidi added, andalmost 75 countries have improved by less than five points.
"So the progress is very slow... even though we areseeing a trend in a positive direction," she said.
