World’s progress to gender equality

ACCORDING to the World Economic Forum’s 2018 an­nual report, Sweden is top 3rd country following Iceland and Norway. Sweden has the most generous parental leave policy in the world, with parents entitled to share 480 days paid leave following the birth or adoption of a child. This is just one of the initiatives that have helped the nation close 82% of its gender gap. In recent years, Sweden has seen an increase in female legislators and numbers of se­nior officials and managers.

Finland has the fourth great­est gender equality of any na­tion. It is the only top-ranked Nordic nation to fully-closed the gender gap in educational attainment. Women make up 42% of Finland’s parliament and 38.5% of ministers, the nation’s strong political empowerment rating.

Nicaragua, the 5th in rank, is the highest ranked country in the Latin America and the Carib­bean region, and has climbed all the way from 62nd in 2006. Particularly noteworthy is Ni­caragua’s second position on political empowerment, and first position in terms of the ratio of women in ministerial positions. This is a result of a 50-50 law that mandates gender equality in party candidate lists for elec­tions. Nicaragua is ranked first on the criteria of health and survival.

In the Rwandan parliament, the county ranked top 6th, women outnumber men, the country with the highest pro­portion of female MPs. Women make up 61 percent. For the female labor force, Rwanda has one of the highest rates of fe­male participation in the world. This high rate of female work­force participation is in part out of necessity, and has its roots in the country’s devastating genocide. In the wake of these horrific events, women made up between 60% and 70% of the surviving population.

Other countries are; 7th New Zealand, 8th Philippines, 9th Ireland, and 10-th, Nambia.