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Gender Equality

A couple articles from a month back that address gender equality. From an article in USA Today:

When it comes to equality of the sexes, Scandinavian countries lead the world, but no nation has yet managed to bridge the gender gap completely, a report said Tuesday. Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland top the World Economic Forum rankings, followed by Germany in fifth place.

The nations studied had, on average, closed about 90% of the gender gap in education and health but only 50% in economic participation and opportunity, and 15% in political empowerment, said Saadia Zahidi, co-author of the report.

Denmark is rated eighth this year, while the United Kingdom comes ninth, the United States 22nd, Australia 15th and New Zealand seventh. The Philippines, which is ranked sixth, is the only Asian country in the top 10. The two countries ranked as having the biggest gender gaps by the report are Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

From an article in the NY Times titled "Gender pay gap narrows -- for unexpected reasons" by Molly Hennessy-Fiske:

Women are closing in on men when it comes to wages, but not for the reasons anticipated - or hoped for - when gender pay equity became a rallying cry in the 1970s. Data show that the pay gap has been narrowing not because women have made great strides, labor experts say, but because men's wages are eroding. The disparity in median hourly pay between men and women narrowed to 18.3% in August from 21.5% five years earlier, according to recently released census figures. In addition, the U.S. Labor Department noted recently that the wage differential in 2005 was the smallest since the department began tracking it 33 years ago, when it was 36.9%. Even when men's and women's work patterns are taken into account - men tend to work more hours - the pay gap is narrowing.

However - as the economy expanded, profits rose and unemployment fell - men's hourly wages declined a total of 2% from 2000 to 2005 while women's rose 3%, census records show. Women's gains were barely enough to keep up with inflation.

Economists say the forces behind these trends show that men and women are experiencing the economy in different ways. In the U.S., men have tended to dominate in blue-collar and manufacturing jobs, which have been disappearing - or seeing downward wage pressure - for the last few decades. Women, on the other hand, have been more prevalent in service jobs such as healthcare, which historically have been lower-paying but have seen wages rise in recent years.

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