Canada falls in 2016 Global Gender Gap Report

The Switzerland-based World Economic Forum has just published its latest Global Gender Gap Report. The index is a composite ranking, measuring differences between men and women in economics, education, health and political empowerment among 144 countries.
Overall, weighted by population, the average progress on closing the global gender gap across the four different dimensions measured stands at a score of 68% (meaning an average gap of 32% remains to be closed worldwide in order to achieve universal gender parity). When divided up into four sub-indexes, we see that 96% of the gap in health outcomes between women and men has been closed, 95% of the gap in educational attainment, 59% of economic participation and opportunity, and only 23% in the category of political participation.
Almost predictably, the Nordic countries continue to rank as the most gender-equal countries, with Iceland confirming its status as the best place in the world in which to be a woman, followed by Finland, Sweden and Norway. There are a few surprises near the top of the list, though, with Rwanda appearing at No. 5, Philippines at No. 7, and Nicaragua at No. 10. Indeed, when labour force participation alone is considered, five poor developing countries (Mozambique, Rwanda, Laos, Burundi and Malawi) all tied for top position with a ratio of 100%, because female labour force participation exceeds the male participation rate in those countries.
Down at the bottom of the list of 144 countries languishes Yemen, which is only marginally worse than other Muslim countries like Pakistan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Chad, Iran and Mali. 68 countries saw their overall gender gap score increase compared to last year, while 74 have seen it decrease. Heading up the "most improved" list are Rwanda, Nepal, Bolivia, Slovenia, France and Cameroon.
And how did Canada perform? Not too well. Canada is No. 35 out of 144 this year, sandwiched between Luxenbourg and Cape Verde. According to the data, Canada has closed 73% of the gender gap over the four factors measured (compared to Iceland's 87%). This is down from 30th place last year, although still above USA (which ranks at No. 45 this year) and still well below the UK (No. 20). Like most other Western countries, it scores a perfect 100% for equality in educational attainment, and almost perfect in health and survival. However, it scores only slightly above average (73%) in economic participation and opportunity, and a very disappointing 22% in political empowerment (49th position, and significantly below many other Western countries, although still well above the USA). Compare that to Iceland's 71%!
Ironically, Iceland has just seen a massive demonstration by women from all over Iceland in front of the Icelandic parliament in Reykjavik, to protest the gender pay gap and to call for equal pay for women. The women protesters left work at precisely 2:38pm, the symbolic time when women start working for "free" during a regular day, when the pay gap is factored in (the organizers say that Icelandic women earn 14-18% less than men for the same work).
Some people just don't know when they are well off. Or maybe they do...