Gender and trade

This report reveals those countries that are role models in dividing resources equitably between women and men, regardless of their level. The Global Gender Gap Reports also confirm the correlation between gender equality and the level of development of countries, thus providing support for the theory that empowering women leads to a more efficient use of a nation’s human talent.

The Global Gender Gap Report 2011 is published by the World Economic Forum. The Global Gender Gap Index 2011 is the result of collaboration with faculty at Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley. The Report aggregates six years of data and provides a snapshot of the situation today as well as the changes over time, revealing a positive trend as the majority of coun-tries continue to make progress on closing the gender gap. It also provides unique new information on the policy frameworks that support women’s economic participa-tion. It is our hope that this Report will serve as a call to action to transform the pace of change on an issue that is fundamental to the growth and sustainability of the global economy and society.

Through the Global Gender Gap Report series, the World Economic Forum has been quantifying the magnitude of gender-based disparities and tracking their progress. By providing a comprehensive framework for benchmarking global gender gaps, it reveals those countries that are role models in dividing their resources equitably between women and men, regardless of the overall level of those resources.

The Global Gender Gap Index seeks to measure one important aspect of gender equality: the relative gaps between women and men, across a large set of countries and across the four key areas of health, education, economy and politics.

The Global Gender Gap Report 2014 quantifies the magnitude of gender-based disparities and tracks their progress over time. While no single measure can capture the complete situation, the Global Gender Gap Index presented in this Report seeks to measure one important aspect of gender equality: the relative gaps between women and men across four key areas: health, education, economy and politics.