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The Gender Gap: where India stands
India's gender gap, compared to the best and the worst in the world
I handle the 'Life' section of Forbes India. In previous lives, I was an advertising creative director, voice-over artist, RJ, TV host, web producer and content architect, freelance travel writer, columnist, and consultant to NGOs. I've been blogging since 2003, and co-founded the South-East Asia Tsunami & Earthquake and Mumbai Help blogs (which, with other similar initiatives later became the WorldWideHelp group), and the writers’ community, Caferati. I'm a keen student of collaboration and online culture. I also co-curated the Literature section of the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival from 2006 to 2012. Aside from Twitter (link below), you could also follow me on Facebook or Google+.
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Our article on the World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Report 2014 looked briefly at India's position. There's a lot more, of course, and below, we have a few more details on how India fared against the rest of the word on the individual counts that the report covered.
The names of the best performing countries in each category are in green, and the worst performers are in red. India, unless best or worst itself, is in black text.
Economic Participation & Opportunity
| Labour force participation | F | M | F:M ratio | Rank |
| Malawi | 85 | 81 | 1.05 | 1 |
| India | 30 | 84 | 0.36 | 130 |
| Syria | 14 | 76 | 0.19 | 142 |
| Wage equality | Survey data | F:M ratio | Rank |
| Burundi | 5.81 | 0.83 | 1 |
| India | 3.9 | 0.56 | 109 |
| Angola | 2.83 | 0.4 | 131 |
| Estimated earned income | F | M | F:M ratio | Rank |
| Denmark | 43,316 | 42,226 | 1.03 | 1 |
| India | 1,980 | 8,087 | 0.24 | 135 |
| Algeria | 3,669 | 22,127 | 0.17 | 139 |
| Legislators, senior officials & managers | F | M | F:M ratio | Rank |
| Jamaica | 59 | 41 | 1.46 | 1 |
| India | — | — | — | — |
| Yemen | 2 | 98 | 0.02 | 125 |
| Professional & technical workers | F | M | F:M ratio | Rank |
| Belarus | 73 | 27 | 2.66 | 1 |
| India | — | — | — | — |
| Fiji | 9 | 91 | 0.1 | 124 |
Educational Attainment
| Literacy rate | F | M | F:M ratio | Rank |
| Lesotho | 85 | 66 | 1.3 | 1 |
| India | 51 | 75 | 0.68 | 126 |
| Guinea | 12 | 37 | 0.33 | 141 |
| Enrolment in primary education | F | M | F:M ratio | Rank |
| Guyana | 76 | 67 | 1.13 | 1 |
| India | 84 | 87 | 0.97 | 117 |
| Angola | 74 | 97 | 0.77 | 137 |
| Enrolment in secondary education | F | M | F:M ratio | Rank |
| Lesotho | 41 | 26 | 1.57 | 1 |
| India | — | — | 0.79 | 116 |
| Chad | 5 | 16 | 0.33 | 125 |
| Enrolment in tertiary education | F | M | F:M ratio | Rank |
| Qatar | 37 | 5 | 6.76 | 1 |
| India | 20 | 26 | 0.78 | 111 |
| Chad | 1 | 4 | 0.24 | 138 |
Health & Survival
| Sex ratio at birth | Male | Female | Rank |
| Kazakhstan | 0.94 | 1.06 | 1 |
| India | 1.12 | 0.89 | 139 |
| Vietnam | 1.12 | 0.89 | 139 |
| Armenia | 1.14 | 0.88 | 142 |
| Healthy life expectancy | F | M | F:M ratio | Rank |
| Syria | 65 | 55 | 1.18 | 1 |
| India | 58 | 56 | 1.04 | 95 |
| Qatar | 66 | 68 | 0.97 | 142 |
Political Empowerment
| Women in parliament | F | M | F:M ratio | Rank |
| Rwanda | 64 | 36 | 1.76 | 1 |
| India | 11 | 89 | 0.13 | 111 |
| Yemen | 0 | 100 | 0 | 136 |
| Qatar | 0 | 100 | 0 | 137 |
| Women in ministerial positions | F | M | F:M ratio | Rank |
| Nicaragua | 57 | 43 | 1.33 | 1 |
| India | 9 | 91 | 0.1 | 107 |
| Brunei Darussalam | 0 | 100 | 0 | 138 |
| Lebanon | 0 | 100 | 0 | 138 |
| Pakistan | 0 | 100 | 0 | 138 |
| Saudi Arabia | 0 | 100 | 0 | 138 |
| Years with female head of state | F | M | F:M ratio | Rank |
| India | *21 | 29 | 0.72 | 1 |
| Ireland | 21 | 29 | 0.71 | 2 |
| Bangladesh | 21 | 29 | 0.7 | 3 |
| Only 49 other countries, of 144, have had a woman head of state in the last 50 years. | ||||
*WEF has included both Indira Gandhi’s years as Prime Minister and Pratibha Patil’s year’s as President to arrive at this figure. In reply to our email pointing out that head of state and head of government are separate entities in India, a WEF spokesperson replied:
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The full Global Gender Gap Report 2104 can be downloaded here.
The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.
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