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DOHA: Qatar has been ranked top in the Arab world for making progress to remove gender gap at work in the World Economic Forum’s “Global Gender Gap Report 2016”.
In the report, Qatar stands first in the Arab world and is placed in the 119th position globally for measures being taken for closing the gender gap at work.
The report is an annual benchmarking exercise that measures progress towards equality between men and women in four areas: educational attainment, health and survival, economic opportunity and political empowerment.
Other Arab countries which stand near but below Qatar are Algeria at number 120, UAE 124, Tunisia 126, Kuwait 128, Mauritania 129, Bahrain 131, Egypt 132, Oman 133 and Jordan 134.
WEF has noted that ‘world sees dramatic slowdown in closing the gender gap at work.” The report finds only 60 per cent of the gender gap closed in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
The gender gap in MENA is wider compared to Europe, where the gap is 75 per cent closed, and East Asia and the Pacific, which has closed 68 per cent of its gender gap.
The report says that the Arab world is facing an “acute misuse of talent” by not acting faster to tackle gender inequality, which could put economic growth at risk and deprive economies of the opportunity to develop.
In this latest edition, the report finds that progress towards equality in the Middle East and North Africa is now at 60 per cent, compared to a global average of 68 per cent. Progress in the key economic pillar has also slowed dramatically with the global gap, which stands at 59 per cent and is now larger than at any point since 2008.
The number of factors behind this decline is salary, with women around the world on average earning just over half of what men earn despite, on average, working longer hours taking paid and unpaid work into account. Another persistent challenge is stagnant labour force participation, with the global average for women standing at 54per cent, compared to 81 per cent for men.
The number of women in senior positions also remains stubbornly low, with only four countries in the world having equal numbers of male and female legislators, senior officials and managers, despite the fact that 95 countries now have as many women educated at university level.
The leading four nations in the report are Iceland at first position followed by Finland, Norway and Sweden, in the second, third and fourth positions, respectively.
