Sri Lanka improves in gender gap ranking
Among top ten Asia Pacific countries in equality for
women:
 Sri Lanka is among Asia Pacific's top ten countries in gender
equality, according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2015.
The annual report was recently released by the World Economic Forum (WEF),
ranking the best countries for women in terms of gender equality.
The report assessed 145 economies on how well they utilize the female
workforce in their country, based on economic, educational, health and
political indicators. The report can be used as an objective analysis of
women's quality of life and to thereby rank the world's best countries
for women with regards to business, politics, education and health.
The WEF analyses more than a dozen datasets including those produced
by the WEF itself, UNESCO Institute of Statistics and the OECD. The
rankings are compiled by calculating gender-based gaps in accessing
resources such as education, healthcare and opportunities to participate
in political and economic processes. Assessing the gender gap enables
the Index to compare rich and poor countries on an equal footing. It is
the disparity between genders that is being measured rather than the
baseline quality of living.
The Nordic States are consistently the best countries for women and
have been so since the report was first produced in 2006. Ireland,
ranking 5th, is the highest placed non-Nordic country. Rwanda (6th),
Philippines (7th) and New Zealand (10th) are the only non-European
countries in the top 10. Since 2014, the United States has fallen by
eight places, to 28th.
The best countries for women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
are Israel (53rd) and Kuwait (117th). The MENA region is also home to
the most unequal country in the index, Yemen, which is ranked 145th. The
Philippines (7th) is the only Asian country in the top 50 while
Sub-Saharan Africa boasts three countries in the top 20 of the index.
The report shows a narrowing of the gender gap over the last decade
but also demonstrates that inequality stubbornly remains.
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