World Economic Forum: Fixing global gender inequality could take 131 years

While the progress made in eliminating gender inequality in the world this year stalled at 0.3 percent, it was determined that if progress continues at this rate, global gender inequality could only be eliminated in 131 years. .

According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2023, which measures change in gender inequality in 146 countries in 4 main areas: “economic participation and opportunity”, “educational gains”, “health and survival” and ” political empowerment”. The pace of progress towards tackling inequality has been greatly slowed by various crises.

Gender inequality has fallen by just 0.3 percent compared to last year. The improvement in achieving gender equality in educational attainment was the main factor behind this slow progress. Since WEF began publishing the report in 2006, there has only been a 4.1 percent improvement in achieving gender equality.

It was determined that if progress towards the elimination of gender inequality in the world continues at the current rate, this gap can only be closed in 2154, that is, in 131 years.

It could take 169 years to close economic inequality and 162 years to close inequality in political empowerment.

Turkey Rank 129

Although 100% gender equality has not been achieved in any country in the world, Iceland ranked first with 91.2% and became the country with the highest rate for 14 years in a row.

This rate; It was determined as 87.9 percent in Norway, 86.3 percent in Finland, 85.6 percent in New Zealand, and 81.5 percent in Sweden. The gender equality rate in Germany was 81.5%, in Nicaragua 81.1%, in Namibia 80.2%, in Lithuania 80% and in Belgium 79.6%. Belgium is for the first time among the 10 countries with the greatest gender equality.

Türkiye ranked 129th in gender equality with 63.8 percent.

Afghanistan was the country with the lowest gender equality at 40 percent, followed by Chad, Algeria, Iran and Pakistan at 57 percent.

Regionally, Europe was the region with the highest gender equality at 76.3%, followed by North America at 75%, Latin America and the Caribbean at 74.3%, and Eurasia and Central Asia at 69. %.

This rate was 68.2% in sub-Saharan Africa, 63.4% in the South Asia region, and 62.6% in the Middle East and North Africa.

WOMEN MAKE UP 41.9 PERCENT OF THE LABOR

Although women around the world participate in the labor force at a higher rate than men, this year women accounted for 41.9 percent of the global labor force.

The proportion of women in senior management positions is 32.2%, 10 points lower than that of men.

On the other hand, although the proportion of women in leadership positions has increased steadily by 1 percent over the last 8 years, this progress is reversed in 2023.

In terms of overall unemployment rates, the unemployment rate for women was 4.5 percent, higher than the unemployment rate of 4.3 percent for men.

THE BURDEN OF THE WORLD CRISIS IS ON THE SHOULDER OF WOMEN

In her assessment of the report, WEF General Manager Saadia Zahidi said there is a sign of near pre-pandemic improvement in achieving gender equality: “Despite this, women continue to bear the burden of the current cost of living crisis and disruptions in the labor market.” she used the phrase.

Noting that economic recovery can be achieved with the creativity and skills of all segments, Zahidi said, “We cannot afford to lose the momentum of increasing opportunities provided by women’s economic participation.” she performed her assessment. (AA)