Turkey languishes in 130th in latest WEF Gender Gap Report

GENEVA

Turkey continues to plumb the depths in terms of gender equality, coming in 130th of 144 countries in the latest World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report.

While the country’s overall rating remained unchanged, it fell on some indicators, dropping from 105th to 109th in women’s education rates, while also falling from 105th to 113th in women’s political participation rates.

Still, women’s employment rates did rise slightly, going from 32 to 33 percent.

Overall, the world economic gender gap could take 170 years to close after progress toward parity between the sexes suffered “a dramatic slowdown,” WEF said.

Despite the fact women have made major gains in educational achievement – catching or surpassing men in 95 countries – women still earn less in exchange for longer hours, are less likely to have a job and are far less likely to have a senior or managerial post, the report said.

The Geneva-based WEF has tracked the disparities between the sexes since 2006 in four areas: education, health, economic opportunity and political empowerment.

Economics was the only area where progress was being reversed, said WEF, which is most known for organizing an annual gathering of politicians, business leaders and celebrities in the Swiss alpine resort town of Davos. “Progress toward parity in the key economic pillar has slowed dramatically with the gap – which stands at 59 percent – now larger than at any point since 2008,” WEF said in a statement.

Report author Saadia Zahidi explained that the 170-year projection was based on data from the past 11 years played forward with the assumption trends are replicated year after year, with no major changes. 

Through the Global Gender Gap Report, WEF quantifies the magnitude of gender disparities and tracks their progress over time, with a specific focus on the relative gaps between women and men across four key areas: health, education, economy and politics. 
The 2016 Report covers 144 countries.