The Czech Republic below neighbours in gender equity, says watchdog organization

In terms of gender equity the Czech Republic places itself at the European average, but below some of its neighbours.

This is made apparent by the publication of the Gender Equity Index (GEI) 2012, published by Social Watch on the eve of Women’s International Day, March 8.

The GEI prepared annually by Social Watch measures the gap between women and men in education the economy and political empowerment. The index is an average of the inequalities in the three dimensions. In literacy, it examines the gender gap in enrolment at all levels; economic participation computes the gaps in income and employment; empowerment measures the gaps in highly qualified jobs, parliament and senior executive positions.

The best and worst 15 countries in the GEI 2012

Social Watch measures the gap between women and men, not their wellbeing. Thus, a country in which young men and women have equal access to the university receives a value of 100 on this particular indicator. In the same fashion, a country in which boys and girls are equally barred from completing primary education would also be awarded a value of 100. This does not mean that the quality of education in both cases is the same. It just establishes that, in both cases girls are not less educated than boys.

The Czech Republic’s 73 points rank it among those countries with LOW GEI. The country’s index equals Europe’s average and those of neighbouring Austria and Slovakia, but place it below Poland (76) and Germany (80). It should be noted that the Czech Republic is far behind those countries leading the score in Europe and the world (as Norway, Finland and Iceland), but also below Sweden, Denmark, New Zealand, Spain and Mongolia, all of them above 80 points, which place them as countries with a MEDIUM GEI. 

Out of the other European countries, Czech Republic is above Romania (72), Armenia, Italy (both with 70), Malta (63), Belarus (64), Cyprus, Georgia (both with 67) and Luxembourg (68).

The five levels according to which the index measures the gender gap are: CRITICAL, VERY LOW, LOW, MEDIUM AND ACCEPTABLE, It should be noted that no country has reached 90 points or more, meaning that no country has yet reached the ACCEPTABLE level.

The only dimension in which Czech Republic reaches an acceptable value is education (100 points), while in economic participation and empowerment the country’s performance is much less praiseworthy: 74 and 46 respectively (LOW and VERY LOW).

Norway, Finland and Iceland are at the top of Europe and also the world, with 89, 88 and 87 points respectively. The three European countries that present largest gender gaps are Malta (63), Albania (55) and Turkey (45).

Out of the 154 countries computed by the IEG 2012 those five in the worst global situation are the Republic of Congo (29), Niger (26), Tchad (25), Yemen (24) and Afghanistan (15).

Social Watch members are spread across all regions. The network fights for the eradication of poverty and its causes, the elimination of all forms of discrimination and racism and to ensure an equitable distribution of wealth and the realization of human rights.



For a detailed description of methodology sources see www.socialwatch.org


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