With an almost equal gender distribution in the federal government, Germany has moved up to sixth place in a global ranking of equality between men and women. In addition, the slightly increased proportion of women among parliamentarians contributed to Germany’s best result to date in this year’s index, which has been compiled by the World Economic Forum (WEF) since 2006.
Germany climbed four spots, although the economic gender gap continued to widen over the past year, the WEF report said. In terms of wages, the discrimination against women compared to their male colleagues continued to worsen. The WEF also pointed out that the proportion of women in managerial positions had fallen to 2018 levels at 29 percent. The very high equality values in the German education and healthcare system were rated positively.
Iceland took first place again, followed by Norway, Finland, New Zealand and Sweden. Places 7 to 10 were taken by Nicaragua, Namibia, Lithuania and Belgium. Switzerland’s economy and education deteriorated, slipping from 13th to 21st place. Austria rattled from 21st place to 47th place, mainly because of the low proportion of female ministers.
Globally, the gap between the sexes narrowed only minimally in the past year. If the world continues to move so slowly towards equality, the gap between women and men will only close in 131 years, the WEF calculated.
