Kingdom sees slight progress on global gender gap index

AMMAN — The Kingdom climbed seven points on the gender gap index, according to the World Economic Forum’s report “Closing the Gender Gap Accelerators 2021”.

The Kingdom’s new ranking was 131 out of 156 countries. In 2020, the Kingdom came in the 138 place out of 153 countries, the report said.

The Kingdom managed to close its Economic Participation and Opportunity gap by at least one full percentage point in one year, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the report pointed out that the difference between men and women’s participation in the labour market remains extreme for several world countries, including Jordan.

The report pointed out that women’s participation in the labour force stood at 15.6 per cent, which “represents a 77 per cent gap between males and females.  But the report pointed out that the number of managers in Jordan is equal between men and women.

The report stated that the region has the lowest rates of women’s participation in the labour market in the world.

Other important factors that are limiting women’s economic participation in the region, according to the report, includes lack of access to financial assets, including bank accounts combined with low female presence in the workplace.

Meanwhile, the report pointed out the COVID-19 pandemic, saying it contributed in creating “new barriers to building inclusive and prosperous economies and societies”.

“Pre-existing gender gaps have amplified the crisis asymmetrically between men and women, even as women have been at the frontlines of managing the crisis as essential workers,” according to the report.

The hardest hit sectors by lockdowns and rapid digitalisation are those “where women are more frequently employed. Combined with the additional pressures of providing care in the home, the crisis has halted progress towards gender parity in several economies and industries”, the report added.