Nordic Countries Lead In Gender Equality

One of the biggest battles of the twentieth century was fought over gender equality.   And that battles continues now in the twenty-first century.   There are still far too many places in the world where women still have virtually no rights at all.   Much progress has been made in the developed countries, but true equality has yet to be achieved (especially in areas like equal pay for equal work).

In an effort to foster more world-wide gender equality, the World Economic Forum (WEF) issues an annual Global Gender Gap Report.   This WEF report rates all countries on gender equality -- measuring each countries equality in politics, education, employment and health.   For the second year in a row, Iceland has earned the top position as the most gender-equal country in the world.

Some might think that as much as the United States talks about equality, they must be among the leaders in gender equality.   Not so.   In fact, the United States did not even make it into the top 15 countries.   In 2009, the United States stood in 31st place.   They did improve that this year to finish in 19th place -- largely on the basis of the large number of women in the Obama administration and some closing of the pay gap between men and women.

Here is the ranking of the top 31 countries, along with the score they earned in 2010 (the score is the percentage of the gender gap that has been closed):

1. Iceland (84.96%)
2. Norway (84.04%)
3. Finland (82.60%)
4. Sweden (80.24%)
5. New Zealand (78.08%)
6. Ireland (77.73%)
7. Denmark (77.19%)
8. Lesotho (76.78%)
9. Philippines (76.54%)
10. Switzerland (75.62%)

11. Spain (75.54%)
12. South Africa (75.35%)
13. Germany (75.30%)
14. Belgium (75.09%)
15. United Kingdom (74.60%)
16. Sri Lanka (74.58%)
17. Netherlands (74.44%)
18. Latvia (74.29%)
19. United States (74.11%)
20. Canada (73.72%)

21. Trinidad and Tobago (73.53%)
22. Mozambique (73.29%)
23. Australia (72.71%)
24. Cuba (72.53%)
25. Namibia (72.38%)
26. Luxembourg (72.31%)
27. Mongolia (71.94%)
28. Costa Rica (71.94%)
29. Argentina (71.87%)
30. Nicaragua (71.76%)
31. Barbados (71.76%)

And the ranking of some other countries of interest:

32. Portugal (71.71%)
37. Austria (70.91%)
45. Russian Federation (70.36%)
46. France (70.25%)
52. Israel (69.57%)
58. Greece (69.08%)
61. China (68.81%)
74. Italy (67.65%)
91. Mexico (65.77%)
94. Japan (65.24%)
112. India (61.55%)

And here are the bottom 15 countries with the world's worst gender equality:

120. Jordan (60.48%)
121. Ethiopia (60.19%)
122. Oman (59.50%)
123. Iran (59.33%)
124. Syria (59.26%)
125. Egypt (58.99%)
126. Turkey (58.76%)
127. Morocco (57.67%)
128. Benin (57.19%)
129. Saudi Arabia (57.13%)
130. Cote d'Ivoire (56.91%)
131. Mali (56.80%)
132. Pakistan (54.65%)
133. Chad (53.30%)
134. Yemen (46.03%)

The entire list of 134 countries can be viewed here.