WORK
MEASURING (IN)EQUALITY
In practice, measuring gender inequality often involves a long list of statistical data that shows a power imbalance between men and women.
Existing gender inequalities affect not only the lives of individual men and women, but also the global economy, as they undermine economic growth and development. Women earn only 63% of what men earn worldwide. A 2019 World Bank analysis found that as a result of this difference, women potentially lose collectively $160 trillion a year.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) publishes an annual report on the state of inequality between women and men in the world. In 2020, the WEF reports: "None of us will experience gender equality in our lifetime, and it is likely that nor will many of our children."
This report annually examines inequalities between women and men in 149 countries and ranks them in four areas: economic participation and opportunity, education, health, and political empowerment. The higher a country ranks, the smaller the gender gap and the greater gender equality.
Western Europe and North America are closing this “gap” the fastest, while the countries in South Asia, the Near East, and Africa are the slowest.
The differences between men and women in all categories are slowly narrowing. The overall global gender gap may close in 99.5 years. This is mostly related to the areas of education and health, where gender differences disappear fastest. But in the areas of economic participation and opportunity and political empowerment, we are moving very slowly: it is expected that it will take more than 250 years to close these gaps.
In 2020, Slovakia ranked 63rd in the overall WFE rankings. We are doing well in the field of education and in the field of health. But in economic and political terms, this situation is still deplorable.
Source: The World Economic Forum