The World Economic Forum (WEF) reports that the global gender gap should close by 2154, which is 131 years away. While it is impossible to be that precise, the figure gives some sense of how long it will take to get what CNN identifies as “a measurement of equality across the realms of the economy, politics, health and education.” (This is the number of women who serve in each branch of the U.S. armed forces.)
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The exact measure is based on four yardsticks: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
The WEF research covers 146 countries. The gender gap is measured on a scale of 0 to 100. The top of the list is dominated by Nordic countries Iceland (91.2%), Norway (87.9%), Finland (86.3%) and Sweden (81.5%). New Zealand (85.6%) ranks high as well.
The United States ranks 43rd (79.8%), behind Columbia (75.1%) and Luxembourg (74.7%), as well as behind neighbors Canada (77.0%) and Mexico (76.5%).
At the far end of the scale are Afghanistan (40.5%), Chad (57.0%), Algeria (57.3%) and Iran (57.5%).
Notably, the countries at the top of the list are some of the richest in the world. The countries at the bottom are some of the poorest. Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, Iceland and Finland are among the top countries based on median income. Afghanistan and Chad are in the bottom three.
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