Gloria Steinem’s quote is the inspiration behind the title. It is when equality exists that we will stop being bothered about GENDER. Till then, gender equality it is. And oh, on the current trajectory, it will now take 135.6 years to bridge the gender gap worldwide.
This year, the Global Gender Gap index benchmarks 156 countries among four key dimensions — Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment and tracks progress towards closing these gaps over time.
Now as per World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021, India’s score is 0.625 while the US’ score is 0.763. This wouldn’t seem bad as the difference is not huge, but India did skip 28 ranks and fell to 140th position. This the lowest score in a decade — we are basically moving backwards.
Some key insights from the report were:
~ Iceland is the most gender-equal country for the 12th time. Surprisingly, the five most improved countries are all nations belonging to Africa or the Middle East.
~ Within Asia, regional differences in ranking were stark — with Central Asia, East Asia & Pacific exceeding South Asian countries. India’s performance is worse among its neighbours.
~ While the proportion of women entering the skilled workforce is continuously increasing, income disparities persist due to the lack of representation of women in leadership positions (27%). There are substantial gaps in STEM-based jobs.
~ One great news is that Gap in Education and Health Survival is 95% and 96% respectively filled.
~ Most of the decline in India’s score can be attributed to the decline in the Political Empowerment subindex — share of female ministers halved from 23.1% to 9.1%.
While we do not need the report to acknowledge this crisis; however, it does serve as a disconcerting reminder of the state of affairs concerning women. So what’s going to bring a change? Well, I can give the age-old answer but through this blog, I am in search of something more. Stay tuned!
