The US lags behind Mozambique, one of the poorest countries in the world, in gender equality.
Women today are better educated and healthier than their mothers and grandmothers. But when it comes to their worth, progress has been remarkably slow, even in the US, according to a new report from the World Economic Forum.
The average woman’s salary has nearly doubled in the past decade, but women still make only about half as much as men. Women world-wide make about $11,000 a year (2015), equivalent to what men were making in 2006, reports marketwatch.com
During the same period, men’s salaries jumped to $21,000 from $11,000, the WEF said.
“The global gender gap across health, education, economic opportunity and politics has closed by only 4% in the past 10 years, with the economic gap closing by just 3%,” said the WEF in its Global Gender Gap Report issued Thursday.
Based on those numbers, the WEF projected that it will not be until 2133 that the economic gap closes completely — 118 years into the future.
Globally, women in Nordic countries tend to enjoy more gender equality than in other parts of the world with Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Sweden taking the top four spots on WEF’s list. Countries were graded on a scale of 1 to 0 with 1 representing equality.
The US, despite its wealth of high-profile female politicians and executives, scored 0.74 to rank 28th, coming in between Mozambique and Cuba.
“The United States loses eight places since 2014, due to slightly less perceived wage equality for similar work and changes in ministerial level positions,” said the WEF.
Improving the quality of life and guaranteeing better rights for women are expected to be a continuing challenge for many countries in the coming years as economies mature and societies age.
“We need to create a world where women’s contributions and ideals are as valued as those of men. Gender parity in our thinking and actions will be critical in helping to ensure that the future is served by humanity and not threatened by it,” said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the WEF, in a statement.
