Austria Tumbles in Gender Equality Index
Austria has plummeted to 47th place out of 146 countries in the global ranking of gender equality published by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Global gender equality has been hindered by decades of cultural bias and inequality and will not be closed for another 131 years. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons, Harris & Ewing photographer, Library of Congress, Public domain
Compared with the previous year, this represents a drop of 26 places in this index, which has been compiled since 2006. This drop is due in part to the area of politics, where the declining proportion of female ministers was a factor.
Once again, Iceland took first place, followed by Norway, Finland, New Zealand, and Sweden. Germany secured sixth place, followed by Nicaragua, Namibia, Lithuania, and Belgium.
Globally, the gender gap narrowed only minimally last year. If the world continues to move so slowly toward equality, the WEF calculates that the gap between women and men will not be closed for another 131 years.
Global gender equality has been hindered by decades of cultural bias and inequality, according to research by the United Nations. The UN's 2030 target of gender parity will not be reached due to this, according to the World Economic Forum.
WEF Analyses Gender Equality
The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2023 is a comprehensive scientific report produced annually since 2006 that analyzes the gender gap in 153 countries.
The report is divided into the four areas of economy, education, health, and politics and ranks the countries in each case. It also divides countries into 8 world regions and examines these groups (one of which is Western Europe, with 22 countries in Western Europe). A score of 1 indicates full parity, while the gender gap is the percentage distance from full parity, so a higher percentage score indicates a smaller gender gap.
Globally, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, and North America are the top three regions for gender gap performance. Since the report's first edition in 2006, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa have shown the most overall improvement.