Considering the poor performance on the Global Gender Gap report card, India needs to take a cue from Nordic countries to narrow the gender gap. Explain (200 Words)
Refer - Financial Express
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 4 years
KEY POINTS
· India’s rank at 140 among 156 countries on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap index.
· Women represent just 27% of all manager positions. The share of women in professional and technical roles declined further to 29.2%.
Nordic countries
· Iceland has been the most gender-equal country in the world, has a culture of political empowerment, and 39.7% of parliamentarians and 40% of ministers are women.
· It also became the first country in the world to make the gender pay gap illegal, highest proportion of GDP expanded on childcare.
· Finland closing 86.1% of the gender gap stands second due to the increased presence of women in senior and managerial roles.
· Norway due to its additional period of a woman head of state and marginal improvements in the share of women in Parliament follows the queue.
Learning
· India should learn to actively include women’s participation in the labour force.
· In India, debate on gender equality has to convert into actions that set into motion a holistic, integrated design and implementation path in India.
· Learning from the Nordic region, noteworthy participation of women in politics, institutions and public life is the catalyst for transformational change.
· Women need to be equal participants in the labour force to pioneer the societal changes the world needs in this integral period of transition.
· Every effort must be directed towards achieving gender parallelism by facilitating women in leadership and decision-making positions.
· Social protection programmes should be gender-responsive and account for the differential needs of women and girls.
