28 October 2014

A report released by the World Economic Forum has revealed that the UK gender gap is widening. Britain has fallen to 26th in the Global Gender Gap Report – its lowest score since 2008.

The UK has slipped out of the top 20, falling from 18th place to 26th, behind countries including Rwanda, Nicaragua, and the Philippines. The top 4 positions were filled by Iceland, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.

The latest rating comes in line with a steady decline in the UK’s faring in the Global Gender Gap Report since the first report in 2006, when the UK ranked 9th.

The UK failed to make the top 20 in any of the categories – education, economy, health and politics. There was a significant drop in the score for “economic participation”, which measures the ratio of women in the workforce, wage equality and the number of women in senior roles.

The World Economic Forum, who hold the annual Davos summit, stated that the UK ranks “48th in terms of both labour force participation and wage equality and 66th for estimated earned income.”

“Unlike many of its peers, it has still yet to close its educational attainment and health and survival gaps (ranking 32 and 94 respectively), while it does moderately better in the fourth area we measure, political empowerment, where it ranks 33rd.”

An IER conference: Equality and Discrimination: what next for equal rights? will be held on November 19.