The Hindu Business Line : Close gender gap, end recession

The biggest surprise in the Global Gender Gap Report of 2009 released by the World Economic Forum, which has done a detailed study on the short-changing of women on parameters such as economic participation and opportunity, education, political empowerment and health, is the big leap made by South Africa.

This African country has impressively narrowed the gender gap and jumped from the 22nd position in 2008 to 6th place with a score of 0.771, beating even Denmark which has scored 0.763 on the gender scale and is only behind New Zealand (0.788).

Prepared by Ricardo Hausmann, Harvard University, Laura D. Tyson, University of California, Berkeley and Saadia Zahidi of the World Economic Forum, what is not surprising is that Nordic countries continue to give a fair deal to their women. Iceland, which was No. 4 on the overall ranking last year, has jumped to the top position with a score of 0.8267, ousting Norway, which has moved to the third rank, with a score of 0.822. Finland gets the second place with a score of 0.825, and Sweden, which held the top position in 2006 and 2007, has slipped to the 6th position (0.814).

Sri Lanka is another surprise, occupying the 16th rank, and being just a notch below the UK at 15th position. But compared to European countries, South Africa and Sri Lanka, the US doesn’t have too much to boast of on the gender scale. It occupies 31st rank in the gender index with a score of 0.717, and is below Bahamas, Cuba and Costa Rica by a coupe of ranks!

Italy (72), Czech Republic (74), Cyprus (80) and Greece (86) remain the lowest-ranking EU countries in this index.

Coming to the inevitable comparison between China and India, the former scores much higher – overall rank 60 with a score of 0.691; against India’s dismal 114th rank with a score of 0.606. Pakistan does even worse at 132nd rank, with a score of 0.546, and is only better than the last two on the list – Chad and Yemen.

An interesting pitch taken in this report is that if the world has to efficiently tackle the “the biggest recession in almost a century”, it will have to include in the recovery “the best of talent, ideas and innovation”. No longer can any country ignore the “skills and talent of their female human resource pool. As consumers, voters, employees and employers, women will be integral to global economic recovery.”

But the report hastens to add that apart from “rethinking, redesigning and rebuilding” the financial and economic system, challenges of climate change, food security, conflict, education and health require immediate and collective efforts to find solutions. Without the engagement and empowerment of girls and women, who constitute one half of the world’s population, it would be impossible to either meet these challenges or aim for “rapid economic recovery”.

“And yet, there is still much work to be done in education, health, the workplace, legislation and politics before women around the globe enjoy the same opportunities as men. There are still millions of ‘missing’ women each year because of the preference for sons in some parts of the world. There are too many female infants who do not receive adequate access to healthcare because of the lower value placed on girls, adding to the global burden of infant mortality,” says the report.

While many more girls than boys miss out on primary education and health care, even in countries where women do indeed receive the benefits of health and education, “far too many are unable to contribute fully and productively to the economy” because of entry barriers in the workforce, particularly at leadership positions.

More Stories on : Gender | Economy | Rasheeda Bhagat

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