Folketinget — Det Politisk-Økonomiske Udvalg

Christiansborg, den 28. november 2006

 

 

 

 

 

 

Til

udvalgets medlemmer og stedfortrædere.

 

 

Ligestillingsstillingsindeks

 

Hermed omdeles ligestillingsindekset, som blev offentliggjort af World Economic Forum den 21. november 2006. Indekset er baseret på en afvejning af fire forskellige faktorer:

 

1) Økonomisk deltagelse og muligheder,

2) Adgang til uddannelse,

3) Politisk indflydelse og deltagelse samt

4) Sundhed og levetid.

 

Indekset viser, at Sverige, Norge, Finland og Island indtager de fire første pladser, mens at Danmark får en 8. plads.

 

Her vedlægges en kort resumé, en oversigt over samtlige landes score samt detaljerne for Danmarks score. Hele den 156 sider lange rapport kan findes på www.weforum.org/gendergap

 

 

 

Med venlig hilsen

Søren Koushede,

udvalgssekretær.

Nordic Countries Top the World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Index

The report measures the size of the gender gap in four critical areas of inequality between men and women.

London, United Kingdom, Tuesday, 21 November – The Nordic countries, Sweden (1), Norway (2), Finland (3) and Iceland (4), top the latest Gender Gap Index released today by the World Economic Forum. Germany (5) completes the top five countries with the smallest "gender gap". Germany has particularly strong scores in the area of political empowerment (6) but displays a weaker performance in the area of economic participation and opportunity (32) deriving, in particular, from a persistent wage gap. EU countries generally perform well in the rankings, with 10 EU members, two of which joined in 2004, in the top 20 positions. The United Kingdom (9) and Ireland (10) both show a strong performance. The United Kingdom displays a particularly strong performance on educational attainment, as one of the 11 countries in the world that have fully closed the gender gap in education, and on political empowerment where it ranks 12th out of the 115 countries. Latvia (19) and Lithuania (20) are some of the new EU members that place well ahead of long-time EU members Austria (26) and Belgium (33), but behind Spain (11) and the Netherlands (12). At the other end of the rankings, Greece (69), France (70), Malta (71), Italy (77) and Cyprus (83) have the lowest rankings in the EU, reflecting, in particular, low levels of political participation by women in decision-making bodies and generally poor scores in terms of economic participation and opportunity, although France’s poor performance in these areas is partially offset as it is one of the 11 countries holding the top spot in closing the education gap and one of 34 countries having closed the health gap.

Switzerland (25) ranks behind some of its neighbours such as Germany (5), but well ahead of others such as France (70) and Italy (77). The United States (22) lags behind many European nations in addition to falling behind Canada (14). The United States performs particularly well on economic participation and opportunity (3) and on health (1), sharing the number one spot in this category with 33 other countries, but lags behind on political empowerment (66). Both New Zealand (7) and Australia (15) rank well in closing the gender gap. The Philippines (6) is distinctive as the only Asian country in the top 10. For highlights of the Gender Gap Report, click here

The report covers all current and candidate European Union countries, 20 from Latin America and the Caribbean, over 20 from sub-Saharan Africa and 10 from the Arab world. Together, the 115 economies cover over 90% of the world’s population. The index mainly uses publicly available "hard data" indicators drawn from international organizations and some qualitative information from the Forum’s own Executive Opinion Survey^1.

The Global Gender Gap 2006 Rankings

Country	Overall Ranking	Overall Score (0 to 1 scale, 0=inequality, 1=equality)	Economic participation and opportunity ranking	Educational attainment ranking	Political empowerment ranking	Health and survival ranking
Sweden	1	0.8133	9	22	1	70
Norway	2	0.7994	11	14	2	61
Finland	3	0.7958	8	17	3	1
Iceland	4	0.7813	17	49	4	92
Germany	5	0.7524	32	31	6	36
Philippines	6	0.7516	4	1	16	1
New Zealand	7	0.7509	14	16	11	69
Denmark	8	0.7462	19	1	13	76
United Kingdom	9	0.7365	37	1	12	63
Ireland	10	0.7335	47	1	9	81

^{Download the full Global Gender Gap Report 2006 Index in  Excel format.}

The Global Gender Gap Report 2006 includes an innovative new methodology including detailed profiles of each economy that provide insight into the economic, legal and social aspects of the gender gap. The Report measures the size of the gender gap in four critical areas of inequality between men and women:

1) Economic participation and opportunity – outcomes on salaries, participation levels and access to high-skilled employment
2) Educational attainment – outcomes on access to basic and higher level education
3) Political empowerment – outcomes on representation in decision-making structures
4) Health and survival – outcomes on life expectancy and sex ratio

"The World Economic Forum is an organization integrating all leaders of global society. In this respect, we put strong emphasis on our Women Leaders Programme and the Global Gender Gap Report. This study provides a unique benchmarking tool to assess the size of the gender gap based on economic, political, educational and health-based criteria. Our aim is to allow both high-ranking and low-ranking countries to identify their strengths and weaknesses in an area of critical importance for the development process," said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.

This year marks an important progression in the Report’s methodology, with the adoption of a new tool that focuses on the relative size of the gender gap rather than levels of women’s empowerment and access. The new methodology is the result of collaboration between Ricardo Hausmann, Director of the Center for International Development at Harvard University, Laura D. Tyson, Dean of the London Business School and Saadia Zahidi, Head of the World Economic Forum’s Women Leaders Programme.

"The new index assesses countries on how well they are dividing their resources and opportunities among their male and female populations, regardless of the overall levels of these resources and opportunities. Thus, the index does not penalize those countries that have low levels of education overall, but rather those where the distribution of education is uneven between women and men," said Ricardo Hausmann.

The report also provides some evidence on the link between the gender gap and the economic performance of countries. "Our work shows a strong correlation between GDP per capita and the gender gap scores. While this does not imply causality, the possible theoretical underpinnings of this link are quite simple: countries that do not fully capitalize effectively on one-half of their human resources run the risk of undermining their competitive potential. We hope to highlight the economic incentive behind empowering women in addition to promoting equality as a basic human right," added Laura Tyson.

The new methodology reveals some very unique and interesting insights at the global level. "Our index shows that the world (115 countries) has on average closed over 90% of the gender gap in education and in health. On the other hand, the countries covered have closed only a little over 50% of the gender gap in economic participation and opportunity, and only 15% of the gap in political empowerment," said Saadia Zahidi.

Note to Editors:
The entire report and individual country profiles are available free of charge online at http://www.weforum.org/gendergap
Download the full Global Gender Gap Report 2006 Index in Excel format.

Print-quality high resolution photographs of the authors of the report – Ricardo Hausmann, Director, Center for International Development, Harvard University; Laura Tyson, Dean, London Business School; and Saadia Zahidi, Economist and Head, Women Leaders Programme, World Economic Forum – can be downloaded free of charge here: http://www.pbase.com/forumweb/gendergap

For more information, you can watch video interviews with the authors of the report on our website at http://www.weforum.org/gendergap

Carlson Companies, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Goldman Sachs, NYSE Group and Nike are Partners of the Women Leaders Programme of the World Economic Forum.

1The Executive Opinion Survey is a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum, which in 2006 polled over 11,000 business leaders in 125 economies worldwide. The survey questionnaire is designed to capture a broad range of factors central to creating a healthy business environment, including rare information on issues such as childcare availability and cost, the prevalence of private sector employment of women and wage inequality.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

Incorporated as a foundation in 1971, and based in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum is impartial and not-for-profit; it is tied to no political, partisan or national interests. (www.weforum.org)

 

 

The Global Gender Gap 2006 Rankings
Country	Overall Ranking	Overall Score      (0 to 1 scale, 0=inequality, 1=equality)	Economic participation and opportunity ranking	Educational attainment ranking	Political empowerment ranking	Health and survival ranking
Sweden	1	0,8133	9	22	1	70
Norway	2	0,7994	11	14	2	61
Finland	3	0,7958	8	17	3	1
Iceland	4	0,7813	17	49	4	92
Germany	5	0,7524	32	31	6	36
Philippines	6	0,7516	4	1	16	1
New Zealand	7	0,7509	14	16	11	69
Denmark	8	0,7462	19	1	13	76
United Kingdom	9	0,7365	37	1	12	63
Ireland	10	0,7335	47	1	9	81
Spain	11	0,7319	85	37	5	71
Netherlands	12	0,7250	51	73	10	67
Sri Lanka	13	0,7199	84	52	7	1
Canada	14	0,7165	10	21	33	51
Australia	15	0,7163	12	1	32	57
Croatia	16	0,7145	42	50	18	36
Moldova	17	0,7128	2	36	50	1
South Africa	18	0,7125	79	41	8	59
Latvia	19	0,7090	20	86	21	1
Lithuania	20	0,7077	15	23	39	36
Colombia	21	0,7049	39	13	27	1
United States	22	0,7042	3	65	66	1
Tanzania	23	0,7036	1	97	26	95
Jamaica	24	0,7014	7	1	65	82
Switzerland	25	0,6997	18	78	34	35
Austria	26	0,6986	81	67	14	1
Macedonia	27	0,6982	31	63	28	101
Estonia	28	0,6944	27	15	51	36
Costa Rica	29	0,6936	89	30	15	1
Panama	30	0,6935	44	34	35	47
Kazakhstan	31	0,6928	16	51	69	36
Portugal	32	0,6922	33	56	40	71
Belgium	33	0,6906	54	84	19	1
Botswana	34	0,6897	23	66	47	109
Israel	35	0,6889	46	35	36	83
Uzbekistan*	36	0,6886	6	74	78	55
Bulgaria	37	0,6870	58	55	30	36
Namibia	38	0,6864	57	43	29	93
El Salvador	39	0,6836	73	58	24	1
Thailand	40	0,6832	13	71	89	1
Argentina	41	0,6829	82	28	23	1
Mongolia	42	0,6821	21	19	101	1
Lesotho*	43	0,6807	61	1	41	1
Poland	44	0,6802	50	12	58	36
Trinidad and Tobago	45	0,6797	56	29	46	1
Romania	46	0,6797	30	42	79	36
Ukraine	47	0,6797	24	24	97	1
Uganda	48	0,6796	28	98	22	60
Russian Federation	49	0,6770	22	18	108	36
Slovak Republic	50	0,6757	43	33	77	1
Slovenia	51	0,6745	34	20	88	71
Kyrgyz Republic	52	0,6741	26	32	107	1
Czech Republic	53	0,6712	52	46	70	36
Georgia	54	0,6700	41	27	59	115
Hungary	55	0,6698	48	48	82	36
Luxembourg	56	0,6671	76	1	44	71
Venezuela	57	0,6664	66	61	57	71
Ghana*	58	0,6652	5	94	80	89
Dominican Republic	59	0,6639	78	1	49	1
Peru	60	0,6619	86	70	31	58
Albania*	61	0,6607	38	57	105	110
Nicaragua*	62	0,6566	101	39	25	50
China	63	0,6560	53	77	52	114
Paraguay	64	0,6556	80	82	38	1
Singapore*	65	0,6550	45	85	75	107
Uruguay	66	0,6550	60	46	103	1
Brazil	67	0,6543	63	72	86	1
Indonesia	68	0,6541	67	80	63	88
Greece	69	0,6540	70	45	87	53
France	70	0,6520	88	1	60	1
Malta	71	0,6518	91	25	48	65
Malaysia	72	0,6509	68	62	90	80
Kenya*	73	0,6485	40	88	93	96
Honduras	74	0,6483	99	1	42	1
Mexico	75	0,6462	98	44	45	1
Zimbabwe	76	0,6460	62	87	62	108
Italy	77	0,6456	87	26	72	77
Chile	78	0,6455	90	68	56	1
Japan	79	0,6447	83	59	83	1
Gambia*	80	0,6446	25	106	55	64
Malawi	81	0,6435	36	96	68	106
Ecuador	82	0,6433	92	38	64	1
Cyprus	83	0,6430	75	54	95	84
Madagascar*	84	0,6385	71	75	104	49
Zambia	85	0,6358	64	100	43	102
Kuwait*	86	0,6341	72	40	114	105
Bolivia	87	0,6335	77	89	71	79
Mauritius	88	0,6327	95	64	73	1
Cambodia	89	0,6290	29	105	94	1
Tunisia	90	0,6288	97	76	53	98
Bangladesh	91	0,6269	107	95	17	113
Korea, Rep.	92	0,6157	96	81	84	94
Jordan	93	0,6109	105	69	100	62
Nigeria*	94	0,6104	59	104	99	99
Guatemala*	95	0,6066	104	91	54	1
Angola	96	0,6038	69	107	81	1
Algeria	97	0,6018	103	83	98	78
India	98	0,6010	110	102	20	103
Mali	99	0,5994	35	111	67	91
Ethiopia	100	0,5945	74	108	61	87
United Arab Emirates	101	0,5919	109	60	112	100
Bahrain	102	0,5894	111	53	110	104
Cameroon	103	0,5865	94	101	85	97
Burkina Faso	104	0,5853	49	113	74	68
Turkey	105	0,5850	106	92	96	85
Mauritania	106	0,5833	93	103	106	1
Morocco	107	0,5826	102	99	92	90
Iran	108	0,5802	113	79	109	52
Egypt	109	0,5785	108	90	111	66
Benin*	110	0,5778	55	114	76	86
Nepal	111	0,5477	100	109	102	111
Pakistan	112	0,5433	112	110	37	112
Chad	113	0,5246	65	115	91	56
Saudi Arabia	114	0,5241	115	93	115	54
Yemen	115	0,4762	114	112	113	48