GENDER EQUALITY GAP HAS GROWN
World Economic Forum report tells of the setbacks – and the successes, writes Sanya Burgess
The global gender equality gap across health, education, politics and the workplace is widening for the first time since 2006, at a time of great tension around the world over the treatment of women.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, released yesterday, said that while Mena remains the worst region for gender equality, it is bucking the global trend and showing progress, “closing more than 60 per cent of its overall gender gap for the second year running”.
Eleven countries in the region have improved their overall score, the forum said.
The UAE is one of the countries measured this year whose score has improved in the past 12 months.
Ranking higher than the rest of the Arabian Peninsula, the UAE is likely to improve further next year, as recent steps forward in gender equality took place after the research for this year’s report was complete.
Changes to the UAE Cabinet, where there are now more women in ministerial positions than Donald Trump has in the White House and Theresa May has at Westminster, will increase the UAE’s score.
At the current rate of progress, the global gender gap will take 100 years to close, compared with 83 last year, and it is the first time that this has widened since the forum began recording it more than a decade ago.
The workplace gender gap will now not be closed for 217 years, the report estimated.
It has found that a total of 68 per cent of the world’s gender gap is now closed. This has dropped by 0.3 percentage points from last year, and in 2015 the report recorded that 68.1 per cent of the world had gender parity.
The report examines gender equality across educational attainment, health and survival, economic opportunity and political empowerment across 144 countries, including the compiling of an index that ranks women’s status against men in those nations.
This reversal has been driven by declining gender equality in the workplace and political representation.
These areas carry the largest gaps and, until this year, were registering the fastest progress.
Although number one in the Gulf and within the top three of the Mena region, the UAE is ranked 120th overall.
Last year, the UAE’s score, which is used to calculate country ranks, was 0.639 out of the highest possible score of 1. It increased to 0.649 this year, which brought it up to 120 from 124.
Although the ranking dropped down the table from 103 in 2010 to 120 today, its score has hovered around 0.63 and 0.64. Other countries have increased their scores, overtaking the UAE in the world rankings.
This year’s report shows that the country has good gender equality in education, ranking at 62 with a near perfect level of parity score of 0.994 and a rank of 67 for political empowerment.
Dr Natasha Ridge, the UAEbased author of Education and the Reverse Gender Divide in the Gulf States: Embracing the
Global, Ignoring the Local, said that there was more to the subject of gender equality beyond what is covered in the forum’s findings.
“It says people have reached gender parity when in fact there’s huge inequalities for males but they don’t report on that,” said Dr Ridge, who is also executive director of the Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research.
“Because they take overall data, the data they use is not just for Emiratis. If we are talking about Emiratis, Emirati women are doing very well.
“They are very empowered, they are very well educated and they certainly have access now to the most senior jobs. If it were just looking at Emiratis, the report would look quite different.”
The report does not take into consideration voluntary unemployment. Dr Ridge highlighted that a significant percentage of Emirati women chose not to work and instead to focus on family.
“It does not reward an emphasis on family values, which is strong in the Middle East,” she said.
Dr Ridge also highlighted the unusual gender ratio in the UAE, with about 2.18 men for every woman, according to data from last year.
“Because of expatriate workers it’s predominantly a male society,” she said. “There’s not many of us women here percentage wise”.
At the top of the Global Gender Gap Index is Iceland. Having closed nearly 88 per cent of its gap, it has been the world’s most gender-equal country for nine years. Yemen is the bottom of the table, with a score of 0.52.
The US has dropped four places to 49 this year while France, at 11, is ranked highest of all the Group of 20.
“We are moving from the era of capitalism into the era of talentism,” said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the forum.
“Competitiveness on a national and on a business level will be decided more than ever before by the innovative capacity of a country or a company.
“Those will succeed best, those who understand how to integrate women as an important force into their talent pool.”
Various studies have suggested that improving gender parity may result in significant economic dividends, which vary depending on different economies and the challenges they face.
Notable recent estimates suggest that economic gender parity could add an additional US$250 billion (Dh918.2bn) to the economy of the UK, $1.75 trillion to that of the US, $550bn to Japan’s, $320bn to France’s and $310bn to Germany.
In response to the news that the gender gap is beginning to widen rather than narrow, Saadia Zahidi, the head of education, gender and work at the World Economic Forum, said: “In 2017 we should not be seeing progress towards gender parityshift into reverse.
“Gender equality is a moral and economic imperative. Some countries understand this and they are now seeing dividends from the proactive measures they have taken to address their gender gaps.”
Sam Smethers, chief executive of the UK gender equality and women’s rights charity The Fawcett Society, said: “This research confirms that progress on closing the gender pay gap has stalled and it has been that way for some time.
“The fact that the global gender equality gap is getting wider not narrower should sound alarm bells for all of us.”
Women’s rights are a hot topic in the UK, with the country’s defence secretary, Michael Fallon, resigning his ministerial post after scrutiny of politicians across Westminster who have acted inappropriately towards female colleagues.
A number of high-profile political figures have been in the firing line after the circulation of a spreadsheet compiled by women who work in the Westminster parliament.
The document warns which people should be avoided because of their history of sexual harassment.
An allegation of rape has been made against one senior party official.
The spreadsheet was shared as part of the #MeToo movement.
Originating on social media, the hashtag was used by women in solidarity with those who stepped forward to reveal incidents of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment allegedly perpetrated by Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.