The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2008 puts Norway at number one among 130 countries for having the narrowest gender gap.

At 27th, the U.S. is in a better position than Canada for the first time in the three years the report has been published. Canada, 31st this year, has fallen 13 points from 18th ranking in 2007, mostly due to loss of ministerial positions in government.

Analysis of the scores by World Economic Forum:

The United States (27) gains 4 places in the rankings this year, driven by across the board improvements in the four subindexes. Given the very tight differentials between country scores on educational attainment, small improvements in this subindex lead to a marked increase in the ranking on this subindex (from 76th position in 2007 to 1st position in 2008). These gains are accompanied by improvements in both the economic participation and opportunity subindex and in the political empowerment subindex, driven by gains in perceived wage equality for similar work, percentage of women in parliamentary level positions and percentage of women in ministerial level positions. The United States now holds 56th position in the political empowerment subindex up from 69th position in 2007.

The list below includes 36 of the 130 countries listed in the report. The first score, immediately to the right of the country name, is the composite Gender Gap Index score for 2008, based on women’s economic participation, educational attainment, political empowerment, health and survival. It is followed by the index scores for the 2007 and 2006. The last number is the index of political empowerment, based on women’s presence in parliamentary and ministerial offices, and on the number of years of the previous 40 that a country had a woman as head of state.

Gender Gap Index rank, Country, (GGI/07, GGI/06) (Political Empowerment index)

1. Norway (2, 2) (2pe)
2. Finland (3, 3) (1pe)
3. Sweden (1, 1) (4pe)
4. Iceland (4, 4) (3pe)
5. New Zealand (5, 7) (6pe)
6. Philippines (6, 6) (22pe)
7. Denmark (8, 8 ) (10pe)
8. Ireland (9, 10) (8pe)
9. Netherlands (12, 12) (12pe)
10. Latvia (13, 19) (31pe)
11. Germany (7, 5) (16pe)
12. Sri Lanka (15, 13) (5pe)
13. United Kingdom (9, 11) (21pe)
14. Switzerland (40, 25) (11pe)
15. France (51, 70) (18pe)
16. Lesotho (26, 43) (33pe)
17. Spain (10, 11) (7pe)
18. Mozambique (–, 43) (17pe)
19. Trinidad & Tobago (46, 45) (24pe)
20. Moldova (21, 17) (68pe)
21. Australia (17, 13) (37pe)
22. South Africa (20, 18) (9pe)
23. Lithuania (14, 20) (40pe)
24. Argentina (33, 41) (15pe)
25. Cuba (22, –) (19pe)
26. Barbados (–, –) (62pe)
27. United States (31, 22) (56pe)
28. Belgium (19, 33) (27pe)
29. Austria (27, 26) (14pe)
31. Canada (18, 14) (60pe)
32. Costa Rica (28, 29) (20pe)
42. Russia (45, 49) (100pe)
56. Israel (36, 35) (59pe)
57. China (73, 63) (54pe)
67. Italy (77, 84) (46pe)
98. Japan (91, 80) (107pe)

The bottom 5 on the list were Benin, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Chad and Yemen.

Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the forum, told BBC, “Greater representation of women in senior leadership positions within governments and financial institutions is vital not only to find solutions to the current economic turmoil but to stave off such crises in the future.” (source)

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We first looked at women in government internationally when the UNIFEM report, “Progress of the World’s Women”, was released in September.

Next, we’ll look at percentage of women in government, and at the quota systems used by nearly half the world’s countries to ensure that women have stronger representation in political office.