Minding the gender gap

Liz Bolshaw is a financial journalist and blogger for headhoncha.blogspot.com 

This is the sixth year that the World Economic Forum has produced its Global Gender Gap Report. The report ranks 135 countries according to specific indexes – educational and health outcomes, economic participation and political empowerment – that focus on quantitative differences (gaps) between men and women.

A country may have generally low standards (say in education or health), but rank highly if similar levels are achieved by both men and women. The index also focuses on outcomes rather than inputs. This means that there may be better news down the line for countries where recent initiatives to close the gender gap have yet to bear fruit in terms of national data.

The ranking by definition compares countries with very different economic and social compositions. In general terms, countries have significantly closed gaps in education and health, but still have a way to go in levelling opportunities in economic and political participation. Only 20% of the global gap in political participation has been closed and 60% of the gap in economic outcomes.

The European countries
The European picture presents, as in previous years, a curate’s egg. At one end of the scale are world-leading Nordic countries and at the other countries (such as Malta at 88th) where large gender gaps remain endemic.

Overall, 14 of the top 20 countries are European; and all five of the top five. Iceland heads the ranking for the fourth consecutive year and is followed by Finland, Norway and Sweden. Ireland is again fifth and Denmark seventh, with Switzerland in 10th place for the third consecutive year. The Netherlands moves up four places to 11th, Belgium (12th) also improves and Latvia (15th) gains four places on the previous year.

The most improved European nations, in terms of places in the ranking, are Austria (up 14 places at 20) and Luxembourg (up 13 places at 17). Both Germany and the United Kingdom drop two places from their 2011 positions. The German fall was due to new data on tertiary education participation and in the United Kingdom the fall in the number of ministerial positions held by women (from 23% to 17%).

The Nordic countries
Among the developed world, Nordic countries stand out as having succeeded in translating educational gender parity into economic participation. Women are not only active in the workforce in higher proportions, but also are paid more fairly for their contribution.

Nordic countries are able to offer a better work-life balance to both men and women and this has also boosted birth rates. Compare this to Germany, Italy and Spain where female economic participation is lower and birth rates are falling. This combination of data puts paid to the argument that women must choose between work and family life. Instead, it suggests that if there are family-friendly policies at work, couples will choose to have children more readily than when such policies are absent.

Countries in the region with no gender gap in educational attainment or health and survival, but large gaps elsewhere include France. The country loses nine places this year, ranking last overall on the perceived wage equality survey indicator.

As Viviane Reding, the EU Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, presents her doomed proposal for mandatory quotas on all European boards, it is interesting to review the impact of quotas on the Nordic region’s data. Quotas – on company boards and in parliament – introduced in some Nordic countries have resulted in high levels of participation. The policies have been so successful that in Denmark, for example, quotas have now been dropped since they are no longer deemed necessary, and in Sweden over 44% of parliamentarians are women.

The East European countries
East Europe dominates the rankings of women’s participation in professional and technical occupations. Of the top 20, 14 are countries in Eastern Europe. They include: Estonia (1), Latvia (2), Lithuania (3), Kazakhstan (4) and Moldova (5). By contrast, the rankings point to large gender gaps in these industries in countries such as Austria (74), Italy (72), the United Kingdom (70) and Switzerland (69).

It will become increasingly vital to overall competitiveness that well-educated female graduates participate fully in the most demanding and rewarding areas of a country’s economy as ageing populations open up increasing skills gaps. Otherwise, as Zbigniew Brezinski warns in The Grand Chessboard, “[Europe may act] as if its central political goal is to become the world’s most comfortable retirement home.”

On the plus side, some European countries are among the most improved over a 12-year timeframe. Switzerland, Belgium, Finland, Ireland and Iceland are top of this ranking with 13 of the top 20 all being European countries. However, of the 39 countries for which historic data have been available to provide the comparison, the bottom five are also European: United Kingdom (35), Lithuania (36), Czech Republic (37), Hungary (38) and the Slovak Republic (39).

National Competitiveness
The index shows a strong correlation between a country’s gender gap and its national competitiveness and GDP per capita. Underlining studies by McKinsey, Deloitte and Catalyst, the Global Gender Gap Report shows that engaging women in the economic and political life of the country has a positive impact on that country’s economic health.

While much of Europe can be proud of its record of achievement, there are signs that in other European countries, previous gains have stalled or are beginning to reverse.

The report estimates that European GDP could be boosted by as much as 13% were the male-female employment gap to be closed in the region. Chairmen and chief executives, policy-makers and legislators should all take heed.

Image: A Firefighter prepares for a training exercise at a San Jose fire station REUTERS/Juan Carlos Ulate