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Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Finland top the first ever study that attempts to quantify the size of the gender gap, as the states with the smallest divide between women and men.

The Forum has undertaken this study to facilitate the work of governments, aid agencies and NGOs by providing a benchmarking tool to assess the size of the gender gap, ranking countries according to the level of advancement of their female population.

The Gender Gap Report quantifies the size of the gender gap in 58 countries, including all 30 OECD countries and 28 other emerging markets

Source: World Economic Forum

Not surprisingly, the top five places are occupied by Nordic countries, characterized by strongly liberal societies, protection of minority rights and comprehensive welfare systems.

While women in these countries clearly have access to a wider spectrum of educational, political and work opportunities and enjoy a higher standard of living than women in other parts of the world, it is interesting to note that the rates of economic participation in some of these countries are not necessarily the highest in the world. For example, although Norway and Iceland occupy the second and third places in the overall ranking, they hold ranks of 13 and 17 in terms of economic participation. This is not necessarily the result of barriers to women’s entry to the workforce, since it is certainly the case that women in some developed countries are in the fortunate position of being able to choose not to work outside their homes. It is a potential caveat of the economic participation methodology that it does not take into account those who may voluntarily choose not to participate. However, it should be noted that while some women may indeed have chosen to “opt out,” that choice is usually made in a structure where workfamily issues are seen as problems primarily facing women, while decision-making structures are dominated by men.

The United States (17) performs particularly well on educational attainment and only slightly less so on economic participation and political empowerment. However, the United States ranks poorly on the specific dimensions of economic opportunity and health and well-being, compromised by the meagre maternity leave, lack of maternity leave benefits and limited government-provided childcare. Moreover, the health and well-being rank of the United States is brought down, in comparison with other developed nations, by the large number of adolescents bearing children and by the high maternal mortality ratio especially given the relatively high number of physicians available.