The US dropped six places, going from 25th in last year”s gender equality study to 31st. While the US did make progress on political empowerment, the large gap in economic participation brought down the overall score. The report, The 2007 Global Gender Gap Report, was published last week by the World Economic Forum.
The study examines four criteria for gender equality: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment, and health and survival. Four Nordic countries, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland, had the highest overall scores.
“The Global Gender Gap Report quantifies the challenge: it shows that the highest ranking country has closed a little over 80% of its gender gap, while the lowest ranking country has closed only a little over 45% of its gender gap… We are expectant that this Report serves as a catalyst for greater awareness as well as greater exchange between policy-makers,” said Saadia Zahidi, Head of the World Economic Forum”s Women Leaders Program in a press release.
