The Global Gender Gap Index Is Out, And America's Rank Is Even Worse Than We Thought

[ismnotwasm]

It's an idealistic image. Lagarde, who is not a declared candidate for European Commission president, has already been lauded by the Economist as being "the best woman for the job" if elected, and the prospect of Clinton in the White House already has polls buzzing and super PACs forming, despite no official campaign announcement. Nevertheless, Friedman's fantasy about Clinton breaking the Western political glass ceiling roused the audience, leaving behind a palpable sense of empowerment.

But coupled with this excitement is the reality that we haven't come that far in terms of women's and human rights across the board. Amid a culture of technological innovation and industrial modernity lurks a society still plagued with gender injustice. We're really not as progressive as we think.

Since 2006 the World Economic Forum has annually released the Global Gender Gap Index to provide a perspective on economic, political, educational and health-related gender disparities around the world. Since the United States is, after all, the land of the free, one would think that we'd rank highly. Yet the U.S. was ranked 23rd out of 136 countries in 2013, far behind five-year front-runner Iceland.

http://www.policymic.com/articles/87107/the-global-gender-gap-index-is-out-and-america-s-rank-is-even-worse-than-we-thought