I came across a post on the Bizwomen blog called “Where are Women Most Equal” that discusses a new report from the World Economic Forum called “The Global Gender Gap Report.”  The annual study examined 128 countries using four key areas: Â

1. Economic participation and opportunity – salaries, participation levels and access to high-skilled employment
2. Educational attainment – access to basic and higher level education
3. Political empowerment – representation in decision-making structures
4. Health and survival – life expectancy and sex ratio

Some of the results are as you would expect with countries in the Middle East ranking low such as Yemen that ranked at the very bottom of the list followed by Chad, Pakistan, Nepal and Saudi Arabia. The United States came in 31st having improved in the area of political empowerment over 2006 but getting worse in the area of economic participation. Â

Here is the list of the top 11 countries who lead the pack in terms of closing the gender gap:

1. Sweden
2. Norway
3. Finland
4. Iceland
5. New Zealand
6. Phillipines
7. Germany
8. Denmark
9. Ireland
10. Spain

Interestingly, all of the countries in the top 20 actually improved their scores over the prior year’s report. Perhaps more interesting, however, is the fact that the top four countries are in Scandanavia. Furthermore, I have to say the United States’ score is very disappointing, and clearly it’s an area our country’s leaders need to focus on going forward.

Click the link to read the entire 2007 Global Gender Gap Report from the World Economic Forum. What do you think about the results?