Oman slips six spots on Global Gender Gap Index

(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Oman has performed poorly in removing gender-based disparities with an overall ranking of 128 out of 142 countries in World Economic Forum's 2014 Global Gender Gap Index. It has slipped six spots from its 2013 ranking of 122 according to the index a report on which was released on October 28. Iceland tops the global index while Yemen ranks last at 142.

Although it has done above average on Educational Attainment and Health and Survival scales the sultanate's scores are below average on parameters like economic participation and opportunity and political empowerment.

Oman finds place in the worst-performing countries on the sub-indices of labour force participation estimated earned income legislators senior officials and managers professional and technical workers women in parliament and in ministerial positions. On the other hand Oman has performed well in wage equality or similar work (rank 21) enrolment in primary and tertiary education (rank 1) and sex ratio at birth (female/male) (rank 1). Sultanate has also closed the gender gap by performing above world average in educational attainment by scoring 0.974 and in health and survival with a score of 0.971. (0.00 = inequality 1.00 = equality).

However poor performances in economic participation and opportunity (rank 128) and political empowerment (rank 139) continue to reflect badly on the overall rankings.

Kuwait at 113th position is the highest placed country from Middle East and North Africa making significant gains in overall income including for women. UAE at 115 has shown major improvement in economic and political participation and remains the second highest-ranked country in the region. Qatar is ranked 116th Bahrain 124th and Saudi Arabia stands at 130.

The most improved country relative to its starting point nine years ago for economic participation and opportunity is Saudi Arabia; Burkina Faso for educational attainment; Angola for health and survival; and UAE for political empowerment.

'Much of the progress on gender equality over the last ten years has come from more women entering politics and the workforce. ...over the last decade more women than men entered the labour force in 49 countries. And in the case of politics globally there are now 26 per cent more female parliamentarians and 50 per cent more female ministers than nine years ago. These are far-reaching changes – for economies and national cultures however it is clear that much work still remains to be done and that the pace of change must in some areas be accelerated'  said Saadia Zahidi head of the Gender Parity Programme at the World Economic Forum and lead author of the report. 

In Qatar Kuwait Bahrain Tunisia Algeria Oman Israel Jordan Lebanon Saudi Arabia Syria and Iran the tertiary enrolment rates for women are higher than those of men. However most countries from the region have had varying degrees of success at integrating women into the economy and in decision-making.