Bangladesh substantially narrows gender gap: WEF
Bangladesh has substantially narrowed the gender gap, scoring 11 percent higher over just eight years, according to a report published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) today.
The results were achieved by ensuring wider female participation in the economic sphere and creating access to better health and education service, the WEF report said.
Bangladesh has achieved its highest ever overall score, according to the report.
The country jumped 23 notches, from 91 to 68, in the eight years since 2006. Of these the last eight ranks were overcome in just the past one year with the county’s score standing at 0.697 in 2014, the WEF said.
The organisation at an annual gathering of global elite in the plush Swiss ski resort of Davos, said Bangladesh has experienced important improvements on the economic participation and the educational attainment and health and survival subindexes.
The country ranks 127th on the economic participation and opportunity subindex, with a score well below the sub-index average, it said.
It ranks 111th on the Educational Attainment subindex and is the best performing country from the region on the enrolment in primary education indicator and among the top 10 countries on the Enrolment in secondary education indicator, according to the report.
Bangladesh ranks 122nd on the Health and Survival subindex and is part of the twenty lowest-performing countries on the Healthy life expectancy indicator.
Its strength lies in Political Empowerment, where Bangladesh ranks 10th, due to a very high score on the Years with female head of state indicator as the country has had 21 years with a female head of state out of the past 50 years, it said.
After Mali, Bangladesh is the second-ranked country with the highest percentage of women (15-19 years old) in early marriage.
The female singulate mean age at marriage is one of the lowest, at 18.6 years. Bangladesh is also one of the countries with the lowest percentage of firms with female top managers and with female participation in ownership.
Increased access for women to politics and the workforce has narrowed the global gender gap in the past 10 years, the WEF said.
Iceland tops the list in the overall rankings for the sixth year running, with Yemen placed last. The WEF looked at economic factors, health, education and political participation in 142 countries.
Just six nations - Sri Lanka, Mali, Croatia, Macedonia, Jordan and Tunisia - have seen their gender gap grow overall since 2006, the WEF said.
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