The yearly report is presented by the World Economic Forum and is elaborated by runiversity esearchers at Harvard and Berkely. The whole report can be downloaded. which presents country profiles and it gives a ranking of all countries.
Nordic countries in the lead
According to the report " The three Nordic countries that have consistently held the highest three positions in previous editions of the Global Gender Gap Index all continue to thrive, but the top rankings have been reallocated. Norway (1), previously in second position, leaps forward this year to hold the numberone spot in the 2008 rankings, becoming the country with the narrowest gender gap in the world. Norway’s improvement was characterized by substantial increases in scores on economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment and political empowerment. "
"The remaining two Nordic countries—Iceland (4) and Denmark (7)—continue to hold a place among the top 10, rounding off the Nordic countries’record as top performers.While no country has yet achieved gender equality, all of the Nordic countries, with the exception of Denmark, have closed over 80% of the gender gap and thus serve as models and useful benchmarks for international comparisons."
Lithuania falls nine places this year, affected by a drop in the percentage of womenamong legislators, senior officials and managers from 42% to 40%.
Poland (49) is among the gainers, having climbed up 11 places since last year due to gains in the percentage of women among legislators, senior officials and managers as well as in ministerial level positions. Other countries among the top 10 are New Zealand(5), Phillipines(6), Ireland(8) and Netherlands(9)
