Gender gap index: More equality in Singapore but …SINGAPORE – It has improved on its overall score on equality between the sexes, but Singapore has slipped again in the world gender gap index by the World Economic Forum.

The Lion City ranks 85th out of 134 countries, down a spot from last year. Its score, however, improved marginally to 0.666 (on a scale where 1 indicates full equality).

Topping the list again were Iceland (0.827 high score), Finland, Norway and Sweden. Near the bottom were Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, while Yemen (0.46) took last place.

In terms of women’s economic participation and opportunities relative to men’s, Singapore did all right, ranking 58th. The proportion of women to men in the ranks of professional and technical workers was close to equal, at 0.82.

But estimated earned income was far below parity (0.52) while the female-to-male ratio of those who worked as legislators, senior officials and managers was 0.44.

In the “political empowerment” category, Singapore scored a mere 0.1 – but this failed to register that there is now a female Cabinet minister, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua.

As for literacy rates and educational enrolment, female Singaporeans were nearly on par with their male counterparts. In terms of healthy life expectancy, they fared better.

When contacted, parliamentarian Madam Halimah Yacob said the results would have to be analysed carefully. “From our perspective, there seems to be no widening of the gender gap … But we will always be mindful of gaps. For example, the lack of women representation in top echelon of companies needs to be addressed.”

Meanwhile yesterday, the NTUC Women’s Development Secretariat launched a new publication to inspire more local firms to look at work-life innovations based on some companies’ experiences.

Mdm Halimah, the secretariat’s director, said this could help boost the female workforce participation rate from 56 per cent, which is well below the Scandinavian countries’ 76 per cent. Additional reporting by Leong Wee Keat

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