MINSK, 26 October (BelTA) – Belarus has been ranked 30th in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2016 covering 144 major and emerging economies. The report was presented in Geneva on 26 October, BelTA has learned.
Iceland tops the rankings followed by Finland and Norway. Belarus is 30th between Spain (29th) and Portugal (31st). Russia is in 75th place.
The report provides an insight into the gaps between women and men using the Gender Gap Index that was introduced by the World Economic Forum. The index measures the magnitude of gender-based disparities across four key areas: health, education, economy and politics.
Belarus has been given a total score of 0.737, which means that the country has closed 73.7% of its gender gap. This is well above the global average of 68%. Russia, for instance, has closed 69.1% of its gap, Iceland – 87.4%. Belarus ranks in the top five in terms of economic participation and opportunity with a score of 0.823, 29th in educational attainment (1.000), 40th in health and survival (0.979), and 80th in political empowerment (0.146).
The report indicates that, on average, the 144 countries have closed 96% of the gap in health outcomes between women and men and more than 95% of the gap in educational attainment. However, the gaps between women and men on economic participation and political empowerment remain wide: 59% and about 23% respectively.
All things held equal, with current trends, the overall global gender gap can be closed in 83 years. The most challenging gender gap remains in the economic sphere. It will not be closed for another 170 years. The education-specific gender gap could be reduced to parity within the next 10 years. The currently widest gender gap, in the political dimension, could be closed within 82 years. The time to close the health gender gap remains undefined. Today, this gap is larger than it stood in 2006.
