Gender Equality

Gender Equality

The UK has fallen out of the top twenty when it comes to gender equality.

The Global Gender Gap Report -published by World Economic Forum - has revealed that Great Britain has slipped eight places, and now lies in a worrying twenty-sixth.

The report compares chances in education, work, and heath between men and women, and found that Iceland is the most 'equal' country of the 142 that it looked at.

While Iceland is the most 'equal' of the countries, the report has shown that not a single country has closed the gender gap completely.

Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark complete the top five. While Nicaragua, Rwanda, Ireland, Philippines, and Belgium were also in the top ten.

Last year, Great Britain was eighteenth, but now languishes behind Nicaragua and Burundi. The UK was as high as ninth when the first report was published back in 2006, but has fallen down the rankings ever since.

The report has revealed that average yearly earnings for women have fallen nearly £3,000, earnings for met have remained unchanged.

Not only is the gap in wages a problem in this country, we also have very few women in the top job in our major companies. The report showed that just five of the FTSE 100 companies have a woman at the helm.

Anne Francke, chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute, has spoken out about the findings.

She told The Guardian: "The issue in the UK is that while there are more women in the workplace they tend to be in the lower level positions.

"The pay gap continues to be alarmingly large for men and women doing the same senior role."

Countries such as the USA and France have jumped up the rankings this year because they have closed the wage gap between men and women. The USA was up three spots to 20th, while France moved from 45th to 16th.

However, it is not all doom and gloom for the UK, as it has the third highest length of maternity leave.

The report also showed that nearly all of the countries showed improvement in closing the gap in relation to access of healthcare and education.

Sadly, it seems that we still have some way to go until the gender gap is closed completely across the board - I think it is going to be many year before we see that.


by for www.femalefirst.co.uk
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