According to a survey by the World Economic Forum, Iceland, Finland, Norway, and Sweden have the most gender equality in the world, but closing the gender gap will take 132 years.

Iceland remains the world's most gender-equal nation, followed by Finland, Norway, New Zealand, and Sweden, according to the just-released Global Gender Gap Report 2022 from the World Economic Forum.

While North America is the best-performing region, with 76.9 per cent of its gender gap filled, Europe is close behind with 76.6 per cent, a 0.2 per cent increase from 2021, and a 60-year wait until the gender gap is closed (compared to the staggering 132 years global average).

Six of the top ten most gender-equal countries are European countries, with Ireland at 9 and Germany at 10, while two are African nations: Rwanda (#6) and Namibia (#8). And nine of Europe's 35 nations have increased their scores by at least 1 per cent, with Albania, Iceland, and Luxembourg being the three nations with the greatest gains.

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Estimates suggest that it will take another 132 years to close the gender gap, compared to 136 years in 2021—indicating that progress over the past year has been slow, lowering the time to gender parity by only four years.

According to the analysis, only one in five of the 146 economies surveyed closed the gender gap by at least 1 per cent during the past year.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is a region of particular concern because it has the second-largest gender gap that has yet to be closed. While some progress has been made in closing the economic gender gap (+2 per cent), as a result of countries such as the UAE and Israel increasing the proportion of women in technical roles, the region as a whole has made little progress and has 115 years to close the gap, which is nearly twice as long as the United States.

Source: Business Chief

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