The Global Gender Equity Index 2009 (the results)
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Source:
The Gender Equity Index 2009 computed by Social Watch shows that the gender gap is not narrowing in most countries and a majority of the countries that show progress are those that were already comparatively better. The distance between the countries and regions in the better and worse relative situations has widened in the last years. In education and economic activity the situation of women has globally improved, but when it comes to empowerment some 15% of countries have regressed over the past year, and this has been so severe that the average global value of this indicator fell from 35% in 2008 to 34.5% in 2009. Sweden and Finland still have the highest values on the Gender Equity Index. Rwanda, which for years has figured among the most equitable countries in terms of gender, has moved up to third place, overtaking Germany and Norway and the Bahamas has risen from sixth to fifth. The GEI makes it very clear that differences in income between countries are not directly correlated to gender inequity. Many poor countries have reached high levels of equity, even when the absolute situation of both women and men is one where too many live in poverty. On the other hand, in many countries that have acceptable average social indicators these satisfactory figures mask the fact that there are huge gaps between men and women. Women’s levels of empowerment do not depend on a country’s level of wealth; a high level of economic development does not necessarily lead to gender equity. There are also some countries that are classed by the World Bank as high income in which women are relatively deprived in terms of access to power, such as Japan (59 points) and the Czech Republic (53 points). Also, while the proportion of women in positions to make decisions and influence state policy may be increasing, there are still structural limitations, above all those of cultural origin, that may hamper, impede or even reverse progress in this area. The GEI (Gender Equity Index) measures the gender gap using the following three indicators for each country: Education Literacy rate Economic activity • Rate of economic activity Empowerment • % of women in technical positions
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