Women in the Workforce by Country

women and equality worldIt has been said, that if women participated in the workforce more actively, like their male counterparts, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of those countries would be higher.

However, most countries, including some developed nations do not have policies in place that support women’s participation in the workforce, such as access to education, credit, employment, paid maternity leave or child care.

Countries with the highest economic success for women (measured in terms of equality of pay, degree of inclusion in the workforce, and career advancement), that offer the best policies for supporting women in the workforce include Norway, Australia, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Belgium, and Iceland.

Countries with the lowest degree of economic success that have few policies (or none) that support women in the workplace include Chad, Sudan, Yemen, Pakistan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, among others.

women and equality world 2Some interesting facts about the success of women in the workplace and the policies in place to support them in certain countries can be seen in the graphic above.

Source: Harvard Business Review: Vision Statement: Women and the Economics of Equality

 

Cancer Death Rates for Men and Women

Cancer affects both women and men globally. However, cancer death rates are different for each gender, as can be seen in the two maps displayed in this article.

We find the highest cancer death rates for women (126 or more per 100,000 population) in Mongolia, Denmark, Albania, Macedonia, Uganda, and Honduras.

The cancer death rate for men is the highest (150 per 100,000 people) in most parts of the world, compared to women. Countries with high death rates for males include most European countries, Middle Eastern nations, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, China, Japan, South and North Korea, Turkey, South Africa, Argentina, Uruguay, and Cuba. Other countries with high death rates for males (126 or above per 100,000 people) include the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Australia.

We can only speculate about the factor behind this disparity in numbers of cancer death rates for men and women worldwide.

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Expected Years of Schooling for Females Worldwide

The expected years of schooling for females varies from country to country.

Developed nations such as the United States, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Norway, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, etc., show the highest number of expected years of schooling (15 to 21 years) for girls. Other nations in this group include Argentina, Uruguay, Kazakhstan, Libya, and South Korea.

On the other hand, countries with the lowest number of expected years of schooling (0 to 8 years) for females include most African countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Papua New Guinea.

Resource: The World Bank DataBank: Gender Statistics – Expected years of schooling for females

Life Expectancy at Birth for Women

Life expectancy at birth, for women, varies significantly across the world.

On one side of the spectrum, we find nations where the life expectancy at birth for females is 80.5 years or more. Countries in this group include the United States, Canada, Chile, several developed nations in Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea.

On the other side, we find nations where the life expectancy at birth for females is much lower, 62.0 years or less. This group is comprised by the majority of African countries, with the exception of North African nations, and Afghanistan.

Resource: The World Bank DataBank: Gender Statistics – Life expectancy at birth, female (years)

 

Women in Front-Line Combat Roles Worldwide

Women are not allowed to take part in front-line combat roles in most nations. According to the map shown above, published by the Washington Post, front-line combat positions for women are permitted mostly in western nations.

Countries that formally allow women in combat positions (red) include: Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, Eritrea, Israel, North Korea, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States, where the ban on women in front-line combat has been recently lifted.

Countries where women are formally allowed in other major combat roles (orange), such as artillery and fighter pilots, include: the United Kingdom, Serbia, South Africa, Pakistan and South Korea.

 

Age of Marriage by Country

Practice of child marriage for girls by country

We return to the excellent WomanStats Project to share a map they created illustrating which countries allow marriage of girls who are under 16 years of age. You’ll notice from the map that there are many countries in Africa where underage marriage is common. Other regions of the world where the practice is widespread include the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, and Oceania.

Trafficking of Females

trafficking of females

Although statistics about trafficking of females are unreliable due to a number of reasons, starting with the clandestine nature of the activity, the WomanStats Project has managed to gather one of the most comprehensive data sets to date about the issue. One of the maps they produced, displayed above, illustrates the magnitude of the problem worldwide. You may find it shocking that in this day and age trafficking is not illegal and is even common in several countries, including Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. To find out more about the issue, and find out what you can do to help, visit the Stop Violence Against Women site.

Unsafest Countries for Women

click to enlarge

This map created as part of the WomenStats Project, is aimed at determining the relationship of security and behavior of states and the security of women living in those states. It has built a global database of the status of women worldwide, with data from 174 countries.

As seen in the map for the year 2009, countries where women experience lack of physical security include India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia and other Muslim countries in Asia and Africa. In the Americas, Peru seems to be the place were women lack physical security the most. The darkest color in the map indicates the highest degree of lack of physical security for women.

For more information visit: WomanStats Database