China and portuguese speaking countries were featured in an annual report by the World Economic Forum, which analyzes and elaborates a worldwide “ranking” on equality between men and women in each country. Positive highlight for East Timor, which was considered by the Forum as one of the five countries that has developed the most since last year. Released this Wednesday, the ranking analyzes 156 countries around the world.
Iceland leads the ‘ranking’ of the most even countries for the 12th consecutive year, followed by Finland, Norway, New Zealand and Sweden, according to the annual report of the World Economic Forum. At the end of the table, Syria, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan – the latter occupies the 156th position – have the greatest disparities between men and women.
Regarding Portuguese-speaking countries, Portugal is the first to appear, ranking in the 22nd position, after having occupied the 35th place in the previous classification, last year. Mozambique occupies the 36th position, having risen 24 places.
In position 64 and 68 are East Timor and Cape Verde, respectively. Timor-Leste rose sharply, occupying in the previous assessment the 117th position of the “ranking”, while Cape Verde went down 16 places.
In the 93rd position, Brazil emerges, which also registered negative results compared to 2020, but not so significant, having gone down only one position. Finally, Angola appears in the 119th with a decline equal to that recorded by Brazil. As was the case with China, in 107th position, which last year ranked in 106th.
It is important to highlight that East Timor, together with Serbia, Lithuania, United Arab Emirates and Togo, were considered by the World Economic Forum as the nations that have most evolved in gender parity during the last year.
The gender gap in the 156 countries was analyzed through four sub-indices, assessing nations in terms of economic participation and opportunity, health and survival, education attainment and political empowerment. Check below the evaluations made to Portuguese-speaking countries and China.
Economic participation and opportunity
In this index, Cape Verde leads the Portuguese-speaking “ranking”, occupying the 29th place, followed by Portugal (38th), and Timor-Leste (49th). Further back were China (69th), Brazil (89th), Mozambique (95th) and, finally, Angola (102nd).
Access to Health
Between men and women, with regard to the difference in access to health in Portuguese-speaking countries, Cape Verde, Brazil and Mozambique are at the top of the table, sharing the first position with 26 more countries. Asseguir is Angola (53), Timor-Leste (71) and Portugal (73). Highlight for China, which occupies the last place in the world table (156º).
Access to Education
In relation to this index, Brazil distances itself from the others, in the 37th position of the “ranking”. In the first 100, Portugal is also ranked (76th). We have China (103rd), Cape Verde (106th), Timor-Leste (123rd), Mozambique (130th) and, eight positions from last place, Angola (148th).
Political Empowerment
In the ease of access for women to obtain political power, we once again have Mozambique to set an example for portuguese-speaking countries, in 13th place, followed by Portugal (26th), Angola (59th), Timor-Leste (62nd), Cape Verde (99th), Brazil (108th) and China (118th).
Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea and Saõ Tomé and Príncipe were not included in the ranking prepared by the World Economic Forum.
Global level
At a global level, the study, which is in its 15th edition, highlights the regression in women’s rights caused by the health crisis, pointing out that it will take 135.6 years before reaching economic, political and health parity, 36 years more than what they analyzed before the Covid-19 pandemic. This regression was also observed in Portuguese-speaking countries.
“The pandemic has had a fundamental impact on equality between men and women, both in the workplace and at home, pushing back years of progress,” Saadia Zahidi, a member of the Executive Committee of the World Economic Forum, said in a statement.
The repercussions of the health crisis were more severe for women, those hardest hit by unemployment, in part because they were more represented in sectors linked to consumption, among those most affected by confinement measures. Portuguese-speaking countries were no exception.
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), job losses for women reached 5% in 2020, against 3.9% for men, the study recalls.
The pandemic has also “disproportionately” aggravated the number of hours women spend on domestic work, in addition to employment.
The search for a new job is also slower for women, with the chances of obtaining positions of leadership to be reduced even more than before the pandemic, according to the study, which in this case indicates a two-year regression in terms of progress made.
The publication of the 15th edition was delayed due to the health crisis, with the study’s authors indicating that the data collected in 2021 do not fully reflect the impact of the pandemic on women.
See the full PDF document, released by the World Economic Forum.
