DHAKA, Dec 17, 2019 (BSS) – Bangladesh has topped in South Asian in closing
gender gap, according to the latest report of World Economic Forum (WEF).
The WEF in its report titled ‘Global Gender Gap Report 2020’ said
Bangladesh has closed 72.6 percent of its overall gender gap and ranks 50th
on the index out of total 153 countries.
“Reflecting the magnitude of the challenge when it comes to gender parity,
Bangladesh (overall score of 72.6pc) is the only one of the seven South Asian
countries studied to feature in the top 100 of the Global Gender Gap Index,”
the report said.
It said Bangladesh is the best performer in South Asia, ahead of Nepal
(101st) and Sri Lanka (102nd), and some 60 places ahead of India (112th),
Maldives (123rd), Bhutan (131st) and Pakistan (151st) which is third from the
bottom of the ranking.
“But its presence in the top 50 and regional leadership should not hide the
fact that there is considerable room to bolster basic rights of women and
improve their economic and political prospects.
It is the only country in the world where women have had a longer tenure
than men at the helm of the state over the past 50 years. This contributes to
the strong performance on the Political Empowerment sub-index (score of
54.5pc, 7th),” the report said.
But there are only 8 percent of women in the cabinet and only 20percent in
the parliament, it added. In the economic sphere, as of 2018, 38 percent of
adult women were part of the labour force (up from 34 percent in 2017),
compared with 84 percent of men, according to the report.
Only one in 10 leadership roles is occupied by a woman (139th), and the
estimated average annual income of women is 40 percent that of the men, it
said.
According to the report, the top 10 countries in the Gender Gap Index
Ranking are Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Nicaragua, New Zealand,
Ireland, Spain, Rwanda and Germany.
The five countries which are in the bottom of the ranking are Yemen
(153rd), Iraq (152nd), Pakistan (151st), Syria (150th), and Cong, Dem Rep
(159th).