The Netherlands drops behind Namibia, South Africa in gender gap ranking

The Netherlands has fallen three places on the World Economic Forum’s annual gender gap index as Burundi, Namibia and South Africa move into the top 15.

The Netherlands was in 13th place last year but has now fallen to 16th place. Iceland tops the list, followed by Norway and Sweden.

Experts say the fact that many Dutch women don’t work, or work part time, has an influence on the gender gap statistics. In addition, administrative work, which is traditionally done by women, is under threat by continued automation.

In particular, women are poorly represented in the workforce and in parliament, but not as ministers, the report says.

Worldwide, there has been a slowdown in the rate of closing the gap, partly down to chronic imbalances in salaries and labour force participation, the index says. This is despite the fact that, in 95 countries, women attend university in equal or higher numbers than men, such as the Netherlands.