Sexes Equal In Education, Women Lag In Power

Women still lag far behind men in top political and decision-making roles, a waste of talent given that their access to education and healthcare is nearly equal, the World Economic Forum said on Wednesday.

In its 2008 Global Gender Gap report, the Swiss think tank ranked Norway, Finland and Sweden as the most equal between the sexes, while Saudi Arabia, Chad and Yemen were the least equal.

Averaging 130 national scores, the report found girls and women worldwide to have reached near-parity with their male peers in literacy, access to education and health and survival.

But economically and politically, including relative access to executive government and corporate posts, the gap between the sexes remains large.

"The world's women are nearly as educated and as healthy as men, but are nowhere to be found in terms of decision-making," said Saadia Zahidi of the World Economic Forum, best known for the Davos summit it holds in January.

"Given that women have almost closed the gap with men on health and education, it is a waste of their talents if they are not catching up in economics and politics," she said. The report uses data from the United Nations and other sources to assess how evenly each country allocates its resources between men and women.

"The index does not penalise those countries that have low levels of education overall, for example, but rather those where the distribution of education is uneven between women and men," said study co-author Ricardo Hausmann of Harvard University.

Iceland placed fourth and New Zealand fifth, due to its "long tradition of closing gender gaps". New Zealand was the first country in the world to grant women the right to vote in 1893.

The Philippines, whose president is Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, followed in sixth place. Ireland, led by President Mary McAleese, ranked 8th, due in part to a rising number of female Irish executives. The Netherlands and Latvia placed ninth and tenth.

The United States ranked 27th, ahead of its neighbour Canada for the first time since the gender gap report was launched three years ago. Canada fell 13 spots to 31st place.

European economies fared slightly better, with Germany in 11th place, Britain in 13th and France in 15th.

Russia ranked 42nd, China ranked 57th, Brazil ranked 73rd and India ranked 113th.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, Trinidad ranked highest, in 19th place, partly due to an increase in the number of women in parliament. Argentina, which has a woman president, Cristina Kirchner, was next in 24th place, followed by Cuba in 25th.

Among African states Lesotho received the highest ranking, placing 16th, followed by Mozambique in 18th and South Africa in 22nd place.

Middle Eastern and North African countries received the lowest ratings overall. The scores for Syria, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia deteriorated in 2008.

The report said the inequalities in those countries were so large as to put them at an economic disadvantage.

"A nation's competitiveness depends significantly on whether and how it educates and utilises its female talent. To maximize its competitiveness and development potential, each country should strive for gender equality."