Fewer women in top gov't posts, shorter life span push Brunei down in gender gap ladder
Saturday, October 26, 2013
THE dearth of females in top government positions and a smaller gap in the life spans of its men and women accounted for Brunei’s low regional ranking in the World Economic Forum’s latest report on gender disparity.
Data culled by The Brunei Times from the Global Gender Gap Index 2013 show that the Sultanate was placed sixth among nine states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), after the Philippines, Singapore, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.
The Sultanate, however, ranked higher than Indonesia, Malaysia and Cambodia.
Myanmar was not included in the global study of 136 countries.
The report looks at disparity between men and women in 136 countries based on four categories: Economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment.
Brunei was dragged down by the political empowerment index, where it ranked last globally.
The category factors in women in ministerial positions, in which Brunei ranked 125th; the years during which it had a female head of state (60th); and women in parliament (no rank).
“It is one of two countries from the region with a score of zero on the political empowerment index,” along with Qatar, the WEF said.
The Philippines, which ranked fifth globally and was ASEAN’s top placer in gender equality, is 10th in political empowerment.
Laos ranked 73rd, Indonesia 75th, Vietnam, 80th, Thailand, 89th, and Singapore, 90th.
Cambodia, at 96th, and Malaysia, at 121st, joined Brunei in the regional bottom three.
For the health and survival index, which measures the differences between women’s and men’s health, Brunei ranked second to the lowest in the region, at 109th, higher only than Vietnam’s 132nd.
While the Sultanate ranked first in sex ratio at birth between females and males, it ranked 117th for healthy life expectancy for women.
Brunei was placed third in the region for educational attainment of women (76th globally), after the Philippines (first) and Malaysia (73).
For economic participation and opportunities for women, the Sultanate places fourth in the region, at 33rd globally.
It trails Laos, at 8th place, Singapore at 12th and the Philippines at 16th.
Overall, Brunei ranked 88th in the Global Gender Gap Index, falling 13 notches from last year’s 75th place.
The Brunei Times
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