South Africa’s ranking in the global index of countries with gender parity has slightly regressed but the country managed to remain among the top 20 of the world’s most gender-equal countries.
The Global Gender Gap Index 2022, released yesterday by the World Economic Forum (WEF) showed that South Africa’s ranking in gender parity declined from 18 to number 20 this year.
The country’s slight decline in rankings was not because of any regression experienced in key metrics, but because some of the countries had improved their scores.
The Global Gender Gap Index measured the world’s progress towards gender parity in 146 countries across four key dimensions.
These are Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment.
In Economic Participation and Opportunity, South Africa’s ranking remained unchanged at number 92, while it improved in Educational Attainment from position 69 to 41.
Health and Survival ranking also improved from 37 to 32 and Political Empowerment also moved from 14 to the 12th position.
Compared to other countries in the sub-Saharan African region, South Africa ranks number 3 after Rwanda and Namibia, which occupy the first and second positions, respectively.
Rwanda has featured in the top 10 every year since it was first included in the Index in 2014 – and this year it has climbed one place in the rankings, as well as leading Sub-Saharan Africa.
Namibia has dropped two places since last year, as it reported lower levels of parity in three Economic Participation and Opportunity indicators than in 2021.
The report further showed that Sub-Saharan Africa has the sixth-highest regional score and has bridged 67.9 percent of its gender gap in 2022, ranking ahead of Middle East and North Africa, as well as South Asia.
Based on scores of 102 countries constantly covered since 2006, Sub-Saharan Africa registered its highest gender gap score in 16 years at 67.7 percent, improving its performance from last year by 1.1 percentage points.
While the region has steadily improved its overall performance, WEF said this year’s results reflected positive changes in relatively populated countries, such as Nigeria, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya, where gender parity has increased along the Economic Participation and Opportunity sub-index.
The WEF said that the increase in the level of parity in Political Empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa derived from the growing share of women assuming parliamentary seats across the region.
It said South Africa was among 11 countries that have closed more than 50 percent of their gap on this sub-index, including Iceland, Finland, Norway, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Rwanda, Germany, Bangladesh, Sweden, and Ireland.
Iceland still ranks as the most gender-equal country, as it has almost entirely closed its gender gap in Educational Attainment and has a higher share of women as heads of state over the past 50 years and a higher share of women in parliament than other countries.
Of course, Afghanistan is at the rock bottom of the index especially following the hostile takeover of the country by the Taliban last year.
WEF’s head of the Centre for the New Economy and Society, Saadia Zahidi warned that it will still take more than 100 years to reach gender parity worldwide.
Zahidi said in 2022, women accounted for only 33 percent of senior leaders.
“At the current rate of progress, it will now take 132 years to reach gender parity worldwide due to compounding crises brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic – including the global cost-of-living crisis – and weak economic recovery,” Zahidi said.
“The way out of current crises and building future resilience requires creativity and talent– that is not possible without gender diversity.”
BUSINESS REPORT