Rebecca O’Keeffe
Every year since 2006 the World Economic Forum releases a Global Gender Gap report which measures the difference between women and men in four areas: politics, economics, education, and health. This year 146 countries were analysed, 102 of which have been featured since the report’s inception making it a pretty constant and consistent index.
And there’s one thing that the report finds every year: no country has achieved gender parity.
The 2022 report estimates it will take 132 years to close the gender gap globally, and while this represents an improvement from last year’s 136 years, the gap was 100 years in 2020. Obviously COVID-19 has had a detrimental impact but overall this gap represents a whole generation of backsliding.
Now this number also masks huge discrepancies both between regions and indicators meaning progress on gender equality and, by extension, development, is actually incredibly uneven.
So even though, globally, the health and education gender gaps are nearly closed, it will take 151 years to close the economic gap while political parity will take 155 years.
In terms of regions, North America, the best performer, needs 59 years to close the gap whereas South Asia, the lowest ranked, needs 197 years to close the gender gap.
Meanwhile, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has the second largest gap which will take 115 years to close.
Last year MENA’s gap was 142 years. Progress, surely?
Well, not exactly.
In 2006 the region had closed the gender gap by 55% and since then, they have managed to close the gap by 63%. In other words, it has taken 16 years to advance 8% which is a pretty glacial pace.
This year’s report is not entirely representative of current realities either. It must be noted that Mauritania, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen are not included this year. As such, there is a significant difference to the region’s overall scoring as these countries found themselves at the bottom of the table in 2021 where, out of 156 countries, they ranked 146, 152, 154, and 155 respectively.
It is also worth highlighting that the report examines the Middle East and North Africa as a whole, including Israel, rather than isolating for Arab countries in particular. This has had some effect in terms of regional measurements as Israel typically does better than the Arab countries – this year it topped the region coming in at 60.
In fact, the 2022 report shows only one Arab country – the UAE – makes the top 100 coming in at 68 followed by Lebanon (119), Tunisia (120), and Jordan (122). The rest of the region’s countries that are featured find themselves in the bottom 20, with Saudi Arabia ranking 127, followed by Egypt (129), Kuwait (130), Bahrain (131), Morocco (136), Qatar (137), Oman (139), and Algeria (140).
When we break it down by indicator there is a broad improvement in economic participation and opportunity with over half of the countries improving their scores, but there is still a lot of work to be done as only 46% of the gap has been closed. This means women in the region still have less than half the economic opportunity as men.
Educational attainment is a source of optimism with the region achieving 96% parity. This, however, has not been translated into labour force participation which remains an issue across the region most likely due to discriminatory laws, strict gender norms, and harsh guardianship systems preventing women from entering the workforce.
Even though the region performed well overall with regards to health and survival, life expectancy still lags behind with Bahrain, Algeria, Jordan, and Qatar among the worst global performers.
In terms of political empowerment, only the UAE has achieved parity at the parliamentary level, while Saudi Arabia remains at 0%. Saudi Arabia also has 0% for ministerial positions while Lebanon has the highest at 32%. Kuwait and Qatar are the region’s worst performers – and among the worst globally – for political parity and both still have over 96% of the gender gap to close. Notably, Tunisia appointed its first female Prime Minister, who also happens to be the first female head of government in the Arab region.
Overall, these figures remain low despite more than half of all Arab states introducing quota systems to ensure greater political representation for women, suggesting that considerable structural barriers still exist for Arab women in politics.
So, what does all this mean and where to go from here?
The Arab region consistently performs the worst or near enough the worst across most social indicators in pretty much all indices. And the lived reality on the ground is likely much worse than the numbers allude to. Traditional patriarchal culture, protracted crises, lack of religious freedom, discriminatory legal frameworks, and chronic insecurity have contributed to this gap and stories from the region are overwhelmingly negative.
Arab women’s rights, in particular, are the source of much pessimism and can be characterised by patchy progress and major regress. And today, we are seeing a massive backlash against women’s rights and freedoms. The biggest indicator of peace in a country is how the country treats its women, therefore, it is no surprise that the region has one of the world’s widest gender gaps and has some of the worst records in terms of women’s rights.
Despite these poor records, however, there is good news. Arab women tirelessly continue to fight for their rights despite shrinking civil society space and increasingly repressive crackdowns. Civil society organisations and women’s social movements have been a leading force in shaping advancements in women’s rights across Arab states. Most importantly, young women are leading movements around the region pushing for change.
This is the news we seldom hear but the stories that need to be told.
And we are hoping to do just that – in a book due for publication 2023.
We will be looking at the last 50 years of Arab feminism – and what the next 50 will look like because there is a real need to understand what’s holding the region back and what forces are trying to drive it forward.
We will document various milestones and challenges of Arab feminist movements against the backdrop of significant regional events. We aim to be representative of the region while identifying trends and patterns in each. Interwoven into the chronology will be interviews and dialogues with feminists from the region – essentially a narration of events and an insight into where they hope to go from here. Significantly, we aim to highlight young Arab feminists as a galvanising force.
We believe this book will be important insofar as it will draw together movements, voices, and actors from across the region thereby filling a critical gap in existing publications. Moreover, the focus on young feminists is important in mapping, and giving platform to, the future of gender equality in the Arab region.
To that end, we want to hear from you! We are conducting a survey aimed at Arab youth voices to gauge how feminism and activism has evolved and what hopes there are for the future.
You can find the survey through the following links:
English: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FBFNGZD
Arabic: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZSTSL95
If you’d like to contribute a little more in-depth please get in touch at: yallafeminists@gmail.com
Yalla Feminists! 