The 30 Countries with the Smallest Gender Gap

Germany has not been in the top 10 in the WEF gender gap index for more than a decade, until 2020. The country’s 2020 rank — the result of closing 78.7% of the gender gap — is largely due to more women in politics. About 40% of ministers and a third of seats in parliament are held by women. The fact that Germany has had a female head of state for the last 15 years also helps Germany’s high ranking in the political empowerment category. Gender gaps in other areas of the index remain practically unchanged. More men get a secondary education as well as economic opportunities. The economic participation and opportunity gender gap is only 72.3% closed. The wage gap is only about 67% closed, and less than a third of managers and board members of listed companies are women.

Rwanda is the only country from Sub-Saharan Africa ranking in the top 10 countries for gender parity, even though it was ranked sixth in the 2018 edition of the WEF gender gap index. The country has so far closed 79.1% of its gender gap. The country is the only country with a 50% share of women in parliament in the region. About half of the ministers in the country are women, too. Rwanda has closed its health and survival gap and is very close to achieving gender parity in education. The country still has a large gap to close in economic participation and opportunity — about 67% have been closed. Though just about an equal share of the female and male population work, women are paid significantly less. About 40% of the wage gap remains to be closed. Few women are employed in technical professions, and an even fewer are in senior positions.

Spain is among the most improved countries in 2020 in the WEF gender parity index, going from 29th in 2018 to eighth in 2020. There has been progress in all measures included in the overall gender gap index, except in health and survival, where the gap has already been almost completely closed for years. The most significant improvement was in political empowerment, where the country advanced 17 percentage points over the last few years, closing 52.7% of the gap — though Spain is yet to have a female head of state. Gender parity in Spain improved in the workplace, albeit slightly. Though all aspects of economic participation have improved, the gender gaps in wages, incomes, managerial positions, and board members remain relatively large.

Ireland has made many improvements since 2018 and moved up two places in the global gender gap ranking. The country has closed 79.8% of its gender gap. In particular, it almost completely closed the gap in getting secondary education. Ireland has been reducing its gender gap in the economic participation and opportunity category continuously since 2016, closing 73.2% of this gap. The country’s most significant progress over the last year was more women holding senior positions, now standing at 36% from 34% in 2018. There has also been progress in the estimated earned income subindex, where 34.1% of the gap has yet to be closed.

New Zealand is the one country from the East Asia and the Pacific region in the top 10 with an overall score of 79.9%, way ahead of the second-ranked country in the region — the Philippines, which ranks 16th globally with a score of 0.781. New Zealand ranks one position higher than in 2018, even though its overall gender gap is almost unchanged. A woman was head of state in the country during 12.6 of the past 50 years, making New Zealand among the countries where women are strongly represented in institutions. Women in New Zealand were among the first to win suffrage, back in 1893. But the gender gap in the economic opportunity category is relatively high at 11%. More than 76% of women are working or looking for a job, much lower than the share of men, at 85.8%. These two measures are where New Zealand performs the worst.