Thursday March 28th, 2024
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Shock: Egypt Sucks for Women

Another day, another survey. This time the World Economic Forum's report indicating that gender gap in Egypt is far from being closed, putting women at a serious disadvantage.

Staff Writer

Egypt is among the worst countries in the world for women according to the latest figures. The World Economic Forum Global Gap survey ranks Egypt 125 out of 136 countries when it comes to the disparity between male and female quality of life. The study covers areas including Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival and Political Empowerment. Egypt rose one place this year although the country's overall score is decreasing, marking a worrying trend for Egypt's women.

Meanwhile, the highest ranked country from the Middle East and North Africa Region is Israel. Iceland topped the annual poll, with Finland coming in second place. Yemen faired worst internationally, closely followed by Syria and Saudi Arabia. Out of the 110 countries that have been included in every report since the initial report in 2006, 95 have shown improvement over the last four years. However, the Middle East and North Africa region has closed 59% of its overall gender gap this year.

The region ranks the lowest on the Economic Participation and Opportunity and Political Empowerment subindexes with, respectively, only 39% and 7% of the gender gap being closed. Seven of the lowest countries on the Political Empowerment subindex are also from the Middle East region. These results will hardly come as a surprise to anybody living in Egypt but how many more global surveys will it take before we finally wake up and make Egypt a better place for everybody - regardless of gender?