Around the World, the Greatest Gender Disparities Are in Politics
Some countries are better at promoting women’s representation in politics, suggesting social norms may create barriers.
Even though the world was far from reaching gender parity before the coronavirus pandemic struck, the impact of COVID-19 on gender equality is already tangible.
According to the World Economic Forum's 2021 Global Gender Gap report, more than 135 years will be needed for countries to close the gender gap, an increase of more than 35 years from the WEF's 2020 report. Across the four sectors measured – political empowerment, economic participation, education and health – the greatest disparities are seen among political empowerment, a measure of gender parity within politics which takes into account political representation from the parliamentary level to heads of state, a gap that will take 10 years longer to close.
"Gender equality" is one of 76 metrics in the 2021 Best Countries report, where survey participants were asked how closely they associate that attribute with a nation. In 2021, the Netherlands was perceived as the most gender equal, followed by Sweden, Denmark, Canada and Norway. The top scorers, based on perception, have high rates of women represented in politics, relative to the rest of the world, and some, particularly in the Nordic region, have been leaders in gender equality for decades.
But what are the broader implications of achieving gender parity in politics? And why are some nations more successful at doing so than others?
She Persisted, a study on women, politics and power in the new media landscape, calls women's equal representation in government a "precondition for truly inclusive and representative democracies," adding that women's representation in government "improves policy-making and increases the public's trust in the institutions where they serve." When women are represented in government, they tend to advocate for policies that benefit women, such as maternity and paternity leave and other types of family-friendly policies, according to Shirley Graham, professor and director of the Gender Equality Initiative in International Affairs at George Washington University.
Some experts argue the reason why some countries are better at promoting women's representation in politics is because some government and electoral systems may support women's representation in politics better than others. The U.S. two-party system, for example, is "a system that doesn't help minorities gain access to political power," Graham says.
