Turkey in top 10 list of gender inequality

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s global position in female economic participation and opportunity clouds its economic performance which has made it world’s 16th largest economy. AA Photo

Turkey ranked among the 10 worst performers in female economic participation and opportunity, a recent Global Gender Gap Report released by the World Economic Forum revealed.
 
According to the 2011 gender gap report, Turkey, the 16th largest economy in the world, ranked 122 out of 135 countries in overall male and female equality.

The report measured male and female equality in the areas of economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival as well as political empowerment.

The report said Turkey performed above average in the political empowerment of women, primarily because of female parliamentary members, and in the health and survival category, but lagged behind in economic participation and opportunity and educational attainment.

Participation in the economy

Out of 135 countries, Turkey ranked 132nd in women’s participation in the economy and ranked 106th in educational attainment.

Accordingly, Turkey occupied the last place in the regional rankings (Europe and Central Asia) in economic participation.

Turkey ranked 89th in political empowerment and 62nd in health and survival.

Although no country has yet achieved gender equality, all Nordic countries with the exception of Denmark have closed over 80 percent of the gender gap, the report said.

Iceland held the top spot and was closely followed by Norway, Finland and Sweden.