Morocco Ranks Among Nations with Most Gender Inequality

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Taroudant, Morocco - Despite the government’s huge efforts to empower women to fit in all the domains of life, Moroccan women still face some of the world’s worst inequality in terms of economic participation, access to political empowerment, health and survival rates, and enrollment in tertiary education and work, according to a survey of 142 nations released Tuesday.

The annual Gender Gap Index of the Geneva-based World Economic Forum showed Morocco falling to 133rd place overall out of 142 countries, after being ranked at 129 out of 136 countries surveyed last year.  The index ranks countries based on data reported by international organizations on four categories: economic participation and opportunity, education attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.

Morocco was at the bottom 10 in terms of economic participation and opportunity in the index. The kingdom ranks 134th in labor force participation, 102nd for wage equality, 130th for estimated earned income, 109th for women legislators, senior officials, and manager, and finally 104th in terms of professional and technical workers.

The survey ranked Morocco 98th for female political empowerment — the highest index rating among the others for Morocco, despite the low number of women in parliament and those with ministerial positions.

While Morocco has achieved equality in terms of primary education, many efforts are still required to keep female students in class at the secondary and tertiary education levels.

Even with the illiteracy program launched years ago by the kingdom to educate women, the Moroccan literacy rate comparing to world countries is still lagging, and huge work is awaiting the government to fight illiteracy.  With respect to access to technology, the report found that the percentage of internet users who are female is 46%, compared to 65% for males.

“Achieving gender equality is obviously necessary for economic reasons. Only those economies who have full access to all their talent will remain competitive and will prosper,” Klaus Schwab, WEF founder and executive chairperson, said in a statement.  Despite Morocco’s efforts at improving gender equality, the index indicates a continuing downward trend in Morocco’s ranking since 2006, when it ranked overall 107th out of 115 countries.

Nordic nations led the world in promoting equality of the sexes, as they have for many years, with Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark occupying the top five spots.  However, most Arab countries rank at the bottom of the rankings.

Edited by Elisabeth Myers. Photo by Isabella Vernal/ MWN