– but ratios in education, health almost on par
Guyana is listed at 38, slipping three places from its position at 35 last year, on the Global Gender Gap Index, which ranks 134 economies according to the size of the gaps between men and women.
According to the 2010 Global Gender Gap Report, published yesterday by the World Economic Forum (WEF), in Latin America and the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago (21) and Cuba (24) lead the way in demonstrating equality between men and women.
The report measures male and female gaps in economic participation and opportunity – outcomes on salaries, participation levels and access to high-skilled employment; educational attainment – outcomes on access to basic and higher level education; health and survival – outcomes on life expectancy and sex ratio; and political empowerment – outcomes on representation in decision-making structures. Guyana has performed best in two of these areas. Under educational attainment the female to male ratio in literacy rate (99:99) and enrolment in primary education (95:95) were equal. There was no data available for secondary enrolment, while in tertiary enrolment there were more females than males (13:10). Under health and survival, the male/female ratio at birth was equal, while under life expectancy the scale was tipped in favour of women (55:52).
The country’s poorest performance was in political empowerment, where the female to male ratios in parliament (30:70), ministerial positions (31:69) and years with a female as head of state (2:48)showed heavy male orientation.
Under the heading economic participation and opportunity the female to male ratios were 48:85 for labour force participation; 1,607:3,919 for estimated earned income; 25:75 for legislators, senior officials and managers and 59:41 for professional and technical workers.
Meanwhile, just as they have done in the past, the Nordic countries – Iceland (1), Norway (2), Finland (3) and Sweden (4) – have topped the Gender Gap Index. France has slipped to 46 from 15 and US (19) has climbed twelve places into the top 20 for the first time. The WEF said that the 2010 report, “brings together five years worth of data…. 86% [of the countries] have narrowed their gender gaps, while 14% are regressing.”
“We have found that gaps are closing between women and men’s health and education – in fact, current data show that in the 134 countries covered, 96% of health gaps and 93% of education gaps have been closed. And, yet only 60% of economic participation gaps have been closed. Progress will be achieved when countries seek to reap returns on the investment in health and education of girls and women by finding ways to make marriage and motherhood compatible with the economic participation of women,” said co-author Ricardo Hausmann, Director of the Centre for International Development at Harvard University, USA.
“The Global Gender Gap Report demonstrates that closing the gender gap provides a basis for a prosperous and competitive society. Regardless of level of income, countries can choose to integrate gender equality and other social inclusion goals into their growth agenda – and have the potential to grow faster – or they can run the risk of undermining their competitive potential by not capitalizing fully on one-half of their human resources. The economic incentive for closing the gender gap in health, education, economic opportunity and political power is clear,” said co-authors Laura Tyson, S.K. and Angela Chan Professor of Global Management, Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley, USA.
