Ok I know it was yesterday but I wanted to discuss a report that came out today that has to do with marking this day. This report is the Global Gender Gap report and is released annually by the World Economic Forum (WEF). This report measures the gap between men and women in terms of education, health, political representation and economic activity. Iceland topped the list followed by Finland, Norway, Sweden then New Zealand. Canada came in at #25 and US at #31. What surprised me was South Africa being ranked #6. This is not because South Africa is not particularly egalitarian but rather that women in South Africa cannot be termed as equal, certainly not in economic activity and one of the reason why South Africa inched up in ranking is because of the influx of women appointed by the new government.
So my question remains, are women really gaining any foothold when it comes to equality in society? Yes, there are more women in school than before, certainly there are more women in the workplace but the sad fact remains that majority of women do not command the same pay as men do. We have acquiesced on maternity leave and childcare services for the long hours of work with shoddy pay. Scandinavian countries seems to have the right recipe for women with paid parental leave and childcare system in place to support women especially single mothers. How about adhering to quotas of women representation in politics like Rwanda does? US for all its wealth and power has a long way to go in terms of a egalitarian society.
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