The Global Gender Gap Index, 2017 was released recently by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
What is the Gender Gap Report?
The Global Gender Gap index ranks countries on how they are faring to bring gender equality in four broad areas.
They are education, economics, health and politics.
The index lies between 0 and 1, with 1 denoting complete parity and 0, complete inequality.
Drawbacks - It is important to note that this index focusses on gender gaps i.e. position of women relative to men.
It is not an indicator of the absolute position i.e. women’s empowerment.
Also, it doesn’t include everything that matters for gender equality, but focusses only on a few key measures.
What are the key findings?
India has been ranked 108 out of 144 countries in the recent report.
This is a fall of 21 places from the last year’s 87, and India's lowest since the index was developed in 2006.
Health - India fares relatively poor in “health and survival” and is in the bottom four.
This is largely due to the losing battle against a falling sex ratio at birth and the lack of access to healthcare.
Poor indicators of maternal health including ante-natal care are also the causes.
Economic Opportunity - “Economic participation and opportunities for women” is another area where India shows lacklustre performance.
It includes three indicators:
participation gap (difference in labour force participation)
remuneration gap (ratio of estimated female-to-male earned income, as well as a qualitative indicator about wage equality for similar work)
advancement gap (ratio of women to men among legislators, senior officials and managers, technical and professional workers)
Notably, despite gains in education, women’s work participation rate stands at an abysmal 27 per cent.
The report highlights that even when women earned, they were paid around 60% less than men for similar work done.
Around 65% of the work done by women in India is unpaid labour like those at home, in the fields and in childcare.
Despite non-discriminatory laws, women's participation in publicly traded companies and in Research and Development roles is poor.
Low financial inclusion for women in formal institutions is another serious problem.
Education - India has fared slightly better at 112 of 144 countries in education.
This is a result of effortsatnarrowing the gap in enrolment in primary and secondary education across most states in India.
Also, as a country, India is slowly closing the gap in tertiary (higher) education.
India also witnesses a less gender difference in science graduation rates.
However, there is over-representation of women in Social Sciences, Journalism, etc and under-representation in Engineering, Manufacturing, Construction subjects, etc.
PoliticalEmpowerment - The measure identifies gender gaps in the highest level of political decision-making.
It includes the ratio of women to men among ministers, among parliamentarians, and in terms of years in executive office (president or prime minister) over the last 50 years.
Having women as heads of state in the last decades is a positive factor for India.
However, the report finds that only 12% of legislators in India are women.
What is desired?
The findings suggest that at this rate, it would take centuries to close the wide gap between Indian men and women.
It brings out that nearly two decades of economic progress had not led to commensurate strides in women’s lives.
There is a serious need for re-assessing the ongoing schemes by the governments in this regard.
Gender equality has to be mainstreamed into economic policymaking.
It is vital that the government reinvest more heavily in the nutrition and health of women.
Greater participation of women in the workforce and especially in leadership roles is crucial for a developed and gender-just society.
Clearly, laws alone are inadequate in instituting reforms.
Concerted efforts on the parts of organizations to hire more women and overcoming the stereotypes in the social realm are needed.
