As Saudi women defy the authorities to drive in the streets of Riyadh, a report released on Friday shows that, for some countries, the gender gap continues to widen.
(Click on the icons on the map to see the top ten and bottom ten ranked countries for gender equality, according to the World Economic Forum report.)
The Global Gender Gap Report, released by the World Economic Forum, says that in 14 per cent of countries the gap between the rights of men and the rights of women has increased.
Countries where the gap has widened range from those where women’s rights are severely restricted, such as Mauritania and Iran, and countries that have high levels of equality such as Finland.
All of the bottom ten countries in the rankings are in the Middle East or Africa, and inclue Saudi Arabia and Pakistan – where the plight of Malala Yousafzai has highlighted the gender gap in rights to education.
The report looked at a number of key factors including women’s participation in the labour market, educational attainment and political representation.
Top of the list was Iceland, with a score of 0.8731 out of a possible maximum score of 1. At the bottom of the list was Yemen, with a score of 0.5128.
The wealth of countries was also shown to be a key factor – with eight out of the top ten countries classified as “high income”. The bottom ten countries in the list are generally from the “lower income” and “lower-middle income” groups.
At 18th, the United Kingdom was higher than the United States (23rd), Spain (30th) and France (45th) for gender equality, but lower than the Netherlands (13th), Germany (14th) and South Africa (17th).