13 November 2008
Addis Abeba — Ethiopia, slipping 9 places from its 2007 rank of 113, fell farther in the latest gender equality index published by World Economic Forum ranking 122nd out of 130 countries in the world.
In its Global Gender Gap Report 2008 released Wednesday, the Geneva-based global think-tank said Ethiopia, Syria and Saudi Arabia not only fell farther in the relative ranking, but also showed a drop in scores relative to their own performance last year.
Norway, which has replaced Sweden at the first position, is followed by Finland, Sweden, Iceland, New Zealand, Philippines, Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands and Latvia in the top ten.
The rankings are based on four parameters - economic participation and opportunity, education attainment, political empowerment and health and survival.
The Global Gender Gap Index scores can be interpreted as the percentage of the gap between women and men that has been closed. The three highest ranking countries have closed a little over 80% of their gender gaps, while the lowest ranking country has closed only a little over 45% of its gender gap.
Ethiopia ranks 96th in overall Economic Participation and Opportunity category, although the index ranks Ethiopia 50th in Labor force participation, Ethiopian women are not getting equal pay for equal work. In Educational Attainment, Ethiopia lags many countries in archiving gender equality, where the enrollment of women in all levels of education lags far behind the enrollment of men.
Ethiopian women in general have longer life expectancy than men, the report adds.
In political empowerment, Ethiopia ranks 70th overall and ranks 42 in the number of women in parliament.
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