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Ghana ranked 59th most gender-equal country

The index, compiled by the World Economic Forum (WEF), looks at four key areas; economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment.

 

According to the WEF, the report shows that there “remain huge differences in the opportunities for women in the best and worst performing countries around the world.”

“If current trends continue, a baby girl born today will only see the gender gap in health, education, economic opportunity and politics completely close around the world if she lives to 83 [years].”

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While Ghana is ranked 10th on economic participation and opportunity, the country punches well below its weight in terms of political empowerment for women. It ranks 95th overall in that main section and 116th in the parliamentary representation subsection.

Unlike many other global indexes, African countries performed remarkably. Rwanda is ranked fifth overall (and first globally for percentage of women in parliament) ahead of the likes of Germany (13), United Kingdom (20), Canada (35) and the United States (45).

Other high ranking African countries are Burundi (12), Namibia (14), South Africa (15) and Mozambique (21).

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Although no country has achieved full gender parity, those in the top five are at least 80 percent on the road to seeing this realised. The top five are Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Rwanda respectively.

Earlier this year, the Affirmative Action Bill was laid before Ghana’s parliament with a promise to get it passed before the end of the year. Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals entreats all governments to work towards gender parity by the year 2050.

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