Gender Pay Gap To Close In 118 Years Say World Economic Forum

Women Can Have Equal Pay... But Not For 118 Years

Women will have equal pay and reach financial equality with men in 2133 - just 118 years away - the World Economic Forum (WEF) has revealed.

The slow pace of progress in bridging the gap means that women are only just earning the amount men did in 2006, the year that the Global Gender Gap was first produced.

The data suggests women are earning a global average of just over £7,300 compared with £13,500 paid to men.

Nordic nations remain the most gender-equal societies in the world and the top ranking countries are Iceland (1), Norway (2) and Finland (4). In comparison Britain sits at 18th place and the US ranks in at 28.

The WEF report looked at whether men and women have the same rights and opportunities in each country in four areas: health, education, economic participation and political empowerment.

In the educational sector, the picture is mixed. Worldwide, 25 countries have now closed their gap entirely, with the most progress having been made in university education, where women now make up the majority of students in nearly 100 countries.

But progress not been reflected across the world with 22% of all countries measured continuously over the past ten years seeing an actual widening of the gap between men and women when it comes to education.

There is also a marked lack of correlation between getting more women in education and their ability to earn a living particularly through skilled or leadership roles.

Overall the global gender gap across health, education, economic opportunity and politics has closed by only 4% in the past 10 years, with the economic gap closing by just 3%.

"Unless we start changing the culture around the division of labour at home there's always going to be that extra burden on women.

"That means we're not going to be able to maintain those high levels of women joining the workforce all the way through to middle management and senior positions."

Whilst Prime Minister David Cameron celebrated that the gender pay gap is at its lowest level:

Meanwhile Jordan, Mali, Croatia, Slovak Republic and Sri Lanka have all been moving backwards in the gender-equality index.

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