Trinidad leading gender equality

Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago. (File photo)

GENEVA, Switzerland, November 12, 2008 – Trinidad and Tobago not only leads the Caribbean and Latin America in closing the gender gap, but it’s among the top 20 countries in the world making that progress, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2008 released today.

The twin-island republic jumped 27 spots up from its ranking last year to be number 19 in the survey of 130 countries this time around.

“Trinidad and Tobago makes a remarkable climb up the rankings to hold the highest position in the region and to become the only country from the region to hold a place among the global top 20,” the report said. “This is partly due to an improvement in the economic participation and opportunity sub-index, but can be mainly attributed to an increase in the number of women in parliament.”

Argentina, at 24, is the second-highest ranking country in the region this year, moving up nine places due to an overall increase in political empowerment, driven by large gains in the percentage of women in parliament and among those holding ministerial level positions. Cuba, a new entrant last year, fell three places to 25; while Barbados, one spot down, took the fourth highest spot in the region as it entered the ranks for the first time this year.

Suriname (79), Bolivia (80), Belize (86), Mexico (97), Paraguay (100) and Guatemala (112) occupy the lowest positions in the region.

The Report is the result of collaboration between Ricardo Hausmann, Director of the Centre for International Development at Harvard University, USA; Laura Tyson, Professor of Business Administration and Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, USA; and Saadia Zahidi, Head of Constituents at the World Economic Forum.

“The Index assesses countries on how well they are dividing their resources and opportunities among their male and female populations, regardless of the overall levels of these resources and opportunities. Thus, the Index does not penalise those countries that have low levels of education overall, for example, but rather those where the distribution of education is uneven between women and men,” said Mr Hausmann.

Ms Tyson said the report also provides some evidence on the link between the gender gap and the economic performance of countries.

“Our work shows a strong correlation between competitiveness and the gender gap scores…the possible theoretical underpinnings of this link are clear: countries that do not fully capitalize effectively on one-half of their human resources run the risk of undermining their competitive potential. We hope to highlight the economic incentive behind empowering women, in addition to promoting equality as a basic human right,” she said.

Norway leads the chart, followed by Finland, Sweden, Iceland and New Zealand. The United Kingdom is at 13 while the United States is ranked 27.