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With over 69 per cent of its gender gap closed, Bangladesh leads regional performance in this indicator in South Asia, says the Global Gender Gap Report 2022.
The report published by the World Economic Forum on Wednesday said Bangladesh ranked 71st out of 146 countries in the world with a score of 0.714.
Last year, the country was in the 65th position, and its score was 0.719.
Women in Bangladesh experienced a decline in overall gender parity this year, which was reflected in a lower gender gap score and index ranking compared to 2021, the report said.
It said the change is in part the product of slightly lower country performance on the educational attainment pillar, a sub-index with high concentration of scores near parity.
Syed Md Saikh Imtiaz, a professor of women and gender studies at the University of Dhaka, said Bangladesh had been performing well in ensuring gender equality in the last several years.
He said Bangladesh’s rank slipped in this year’s gender gap report but this was not an alarming change.
“Women are doing well in political empowerment and administration. We also did well on many other indices, including women empowerment,” said the professor.
“But we have to overcome some challenges, including in women’s employment and decision-making, to see durable development.”
Bangladesh, India, and Nepal ranked the highest on the political empowerment sub-index. In these countries, women have held the highest office or participate more widely in government, according to the report.
On the economic participation and opportunity sub-index, there was a reduction in both men’s and women’s workforce participation in Bangladesh by 3.6 and 5.45 percentage points respectively. The proportional impact was higher for women.
But the negative impact of the shortfall was counteracted by a 5.3 percentage point increase in the share of women who are professional and technical workers, as well as a 13 per cent increase in women’s estimated earned income, that raised parity outcomes overall.
Bangladesh ranked 141st on the economic participation and opportunity index with a score of 0.427, which was 147th last year.
It secured the 129th position on the health and survival index with a score of 0.962, which was 134th in the previous year.
Afghanistan registered the South Asian region’s, and also the world’s, lowest level of overall gender parity.
The report ranked 146 countries. The top five are Iceland, Finland, Norway, New Zealand, and Sweden while Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, and Chad performed the worst.
The World Economic Forum publishes the report on the benchmark progress towards gender parity. It compares countries’ gender gaps across four dimensions – economic opportunities, education, health, and political leadership.
