But hold the applause. In Saudi
Arabia, women aren’t allowed to drive. In Pakistan, a thousand women die in
honor killings every year. And in Somalia, 95 percent of women are subjected to
genital mutilation. In the developed world, women lag behind men in pay and
political power. The poverty rate among women in the U.S. rose to 14.5 percent
last year, the highest in 17 years.
To measure
the state of women’s progress, Newsweek ranked 165 countries, looking at
five areas that affect women’s lives: treatment under the law, workforce
participation, political power, and access to education and health care. Poring
over data from the United Nations and the World Economic Forum, among others,
and consulting with experts and academics, we measured 28 factors to come up
with our rankings.
Countries
with the highest scores tend to be clustered in the West, where gender
discrimination is against the law, and equal rights are constitutionally
enshrined. But there were some surprises. Some otherwise high-ranking countries
had relatively low scores for political representation and workplace clout.
Canada ranked third overall but 26th in power, behind countries such as Cuba
and Burundi. Does this suggest that a woman in a nation’s top office translates
to better lives for women in general? Not exactly. “Trying to quantify or
measure the impact of women in politics is hard because in very few countries
have there been enough women in politics to make a difference,” says Anne-Marie
Goetz, peace and security adviser for U.N. Women.
Of course,
no index can account for everything. Declaring that one country is better than
another in the way that it treats more than half its citizens means relying on
broad strokes and generalities. (The experience of a domestic servant can
hardly be compared with that of an executive with an M.B.A., even if their
citizenship is the same.) Some things simply can’t be measured. (Is child care
better or worse when provided by grandparents, or subsidized and mandated by
government?) And cross-cultural comparisons can’t account for differences of
opinion. (Who’s more oppressed: the girl in the miniskirt or the one in the
hijab?)
Certain
conclusions are nonetheless clear. For one thing, our index backs up a simple
but profound statement made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week at
the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, as she declared a tipping point
for women. “When we liberate the economic potential of women, we elevate the
economic performance of communities, nations, and the world,” she said. “There
is a stimulative and ripple effect that kicks in when women have greater access
to jobs and the economic lives of our countries: Greater political stability.
Fewer military conflicts. More food. More educational opportunity for children.
By harnessing the economic potential of all women, we boost opportunity for all
people.”
Indeed, the 20 countries that are
best for women almost all have democratically elected governments and GDPs
above $200 billion. Economies flourish when women are included, in no small
part because women reinvest some 90 percent of their income into communities
and family, compared with the less than 40 percent reinvested by men. The
countries that ranked last are poor, in some cases ripped apart by war, and
largely dependent on aid from the West. Afghanistan has one of the highest
maternal mortality rates in the world. In Chad, where per capita income is just
$164 a year and women need their husband’s permission to open bank accounts, just
20 percent of adult women can read. No wonder, then, that global nonprofits are
turning their attention to women and girls. At this week’s Clinton Global
Initiative, more than 50 new programs will be announced, including curbing
sexual violence in Haiti and efforts to end child marriage. (To see the event
live, go to thedailybeast.com.)
In our own
research, the country that holds some of the most significant lessons doesn’t
rank at the top or the bottom, although a decade ago, it almost surely would have
come close to last. In 2003, after decades of civil war, Rwanda’s transitional
government passed legislation requiring that a third of the seats in Parliament
be held by women. Today, its Parliament is more than 50 percent women, and
girls are enrolled in secondary school at the same rate as boys. Last year the
World Economic Forum ranked Rwanda first among East African nations in economic
innovation.
There are
lessons here for the Middle East as it emerges from the Arab Spring. With some
states all but starting from scratch, tackling gender inequality may rank low
on the list of priorities. But it shouldn’t. “The vibrancy of these potential
democracies will depend on the participation of women,” says Melanne Verveer,
ambassador at large for global women’s issues at the U.S. State Department. Or
in Goetz’s words, “Excluding women from postconflict recovery would be like
trying to tie your shoes with one hand.”