Where Do Indian Women Stand on Gender Equality?

Bangalore: India ranked lowest in the gender equality among 14 Asia-Pacific markets. The research was conducted by Master card. The Index of Women’s Advancement measured the socioeconomic level of women in relation to men. It revealed an increasing recognition for women’s empowerment in recent years, indicating enormous strides made by women in society.

Among the Asia/Pacific markets the list was topped by Australia and New Zealand with overall scores of 83.3 and 83.1 respectively. Philippines took the third place with an index score of 77.8. Singapore and Vietnam took the fourth and fifth position with scores 77.4 and 75.0 respectively. India, Korea and Japan were on the other end of the spectrum with scores 48.4, 63.5 and 64.8 respectively.

The index measured the socioeconomic standing of women across Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa and comprised of five indicators namely, Business Ownership, Business & Government Leadership, Workforce Participation, Regular Employment Opportunities and Tertiary Education. A score below 100 indicated gender inequality in favor of males while a score over 100 indicated inequality in favor of females and a score 100 indicated equality between the sexes.

The report indicated that 12 of the 14 markets have been seeing increases in their overall Index scores for the last three years. Though India currently ranks the lowest amongst all Asia/Pacific markets, their scores have been on an upward trend since 2010. On the other hand, China, which currently has an index score of 73.7, has been witnessing consistent small declines in their score since 2007.