Dutch tumble in World Economic Forum gender parity ranking

The Netherlands has tumbled 11 places on the World Economic Forum’s latest gender gap report, which like last year is topped by Iceland.

Now in its 14th year, the Global Gender Gap Report 2020 benchmarks 153 countries on their progress towards gender parity in four key areas: economic participation, education, health and survival and political empowerment.

The Netherlands is now in 38th place on the ranking, below many western European countries as well as countries such as Rwanda, Namibia and Costa Rica.

While 101 countries have taken steps to reduce the gender gap, in the Netherlands it has widened slightly, from 74.7% to 73.6%, the index compilers say. The poor Dutch showing is due to the lack of female political influence, which has worsened even though it remains above the ranking average.

The World Economic Forum says it will be almost 100 years before the global gender gap is eradicated entirely.