Global Gender Gap Report 2010 by World Economic Forum, Sri Lanka Retains the Same Rank as in 2009

12th October 2010, www.guardian.co.uk, By Randeep Ramesh

The gender gap is narrowing across the globe, with large parts of the world moving towards greater equality between the sexes in terms of pay, education, health and political representation, according to a report by the World Economic Forum.

Nordic nations, longtime champions of an equal society, topped the list with Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden demonstrating "great equality between men and women" in the forum's Global Gender Gap Index.

Of the countries surveyed, 59% narrowed the gap in the past year. Denmark, the Philippines, the UK and Sri Lanka stayed at the same ranks as in 2009, keeping them in the top 20.

Although Iceland, rated the best nation for gender equality in the world, has seen its economic wealth shattered by recession, the government is committed to levelling society further and introduced laws this year to force companies with more than 50 staff to ensure their management is made up of at least 40% women by September 2013.

In Nordic nations, women live longer, have high employment rates and often enjoy generous maternity and paternity schemes.

There are more than 1.5 women for every man enrolled in tertiary education.

Gender equality, claim the report's authors, boosts growth in both rich and poor countries. The report warned that while gaps were narrowing between men's and women's health and education, women were still left out of the labour market – including salaried and skilled jobs.

Klaus Schwab, the chairman of the WEF, said: "Low gender gaps are directly correlated with high economic competitiveness.

Women and girls must be treated equally if a country is to grow and prosper.

"We still need a true gender equality revolution, not only to mobilise a major pool of talent both in terms of volume and quality, but also to create a more compassionate value system within all our institutions."

The developing world had some notable success stories. Lesotho, the Philippines and South Africa were more equal than the UK, which was 15th in the global list. Lesotho, which rose two places to 8th, is the only country in sub-Saharan Africa to have no gender gap in either education or health.

The emerging economic giants in Asia had some way to go. China dropped a place to 61st because of the prevalence of female foeticide – aborting baby girls because of a cultural preference for boys. This has been exacerbated by the country's one-child policy and the report noted that China's sex ratio at birth fell this year from 0.91 to 0.88 girls for every boy.

India fares even worse at 112th with the report warning that "persistent health, education and economic participation gaps will be detrimental to (the country's) growth". The bottom three spots this year went to Pakistan at 132nd, followed by Chad and Yemen at 134th.

The US rose to 19th, jumping 12 positions, in part because women now occupy a third of the top jobs in president Barack Obama's administration, compared to a quarter in the last government.

There was also a rise in income for American women to almost $35,000 (£22,000) from more than $25,000. While the UK performs well in education and health, its male-to-female ratios in politics and the workforce are low. In terms of wages the UK ranks 78th out of the 134 countries.

The poorest performer in the richer democracies appears to be France. It ranks 46th, trailing much poorer nations such as Kazakhstan and Jamaica, and has fallen 28 places since last year due largely to a fall in the number of women in politics despite legislation that requires equal numbers of both sexes on political parties' lists of candidates. mandates that both sexes must be equally represented as candidates on political party lists.