Nailing Down the Gender Gap

Apart from well-planned government interventions at various levels, greater awareness among women and change in mind-set towards them essential to nail down the gender gap, writes Sujata Praharaj.

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Fe year a bunch of reports are published reflecting the current status of the prevalent gender gap and how countries fair in bridging the chasm.

These reports are an acknowl-edgement of the prevalence of gender inequalities which continue with their perennial attributes from ages and the need for their mitigation with changes in time. One of the most comprehensive reports, the Global Gender Gap Reports of the World Economic Forum, as its annual exercise, reflect the objective of the Forum to assess and compare gender disparities across 148 countries of the world using the strategic benchmark of Gender Gap Index, the longest-standing global index published since 2006.

The Gender Gap Index estimates the magnitude of gender inequalities and their personal, familial, societal and global impact. Performance and progress of the countries are tested placing women on the parameters of socio-politico-economic indices. The measuring scale with 0 to 1 considers the score of each of the four dimensions of Economic Participation and Opportunities, Political Empowerment, Educational Attainment and Health and Survival of women visa-vis men. While 1 denotes total gender parity 0 represents total inequality.