By TONY BEST
Friday, November 13, 2009

Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, in that order, are leading the Western Hemisphere in closing the overall economic and social gender gap.

Both countries outperformed Canada and the United States in the past 12 months in breaking down the barriers that have historically forced women into subordinate positions in society.

That became clear in the 2009 Global Gender Gap Index compiled by the World Economic Forum.

The annual survey of women's participation in the economy, their levels of educational, health and survival, and political empowerment were generally better than their Western Hemisphere neighbours, giving Trinidad and Tobago a global ranking of 19th of the 134 countries studied.

That position remained the same as last year while Barbados improved its record by moving five places to 21st on the global list. On the other hand, Canada was ranked 25th, an improvement over 2008 when it was in the 31st spot.

But the United States lost ground, falling three spots in the ranking, dropping to 31st largely because of declines in women's participation in the economy and improvement in the scores of lower ranking countries.

According to the report, Bajan women have achieved equality with men in such areas as literacy and enrolment in primary education and have actually surpassed men in secondary and tertiary educational enrolment.

Because females tend to live longer than their male counterparts, health and survival performance was another area in which the playing field was level. Women are also doing much better than their male technical and professional working counterparts.

Although Trinidad and Tobago was ranked two places higher than Barbados, its performance was only marginally better than its neighbour's and that was because the country scored well in sharing the political power in parliament and in ministerial office.

Political presence

For instance, Trinidad and Tobago was ranked 27th in political empowerment but Barbados was 67th.

Not only did Trinidad and Tobago have more women in parliament but the presence of women in the cabinet was also stronger.

The Global Gender Report measures the size of the gender inequality gap in four vital areas: economic participation and opportunity - salaries, participation levels and access to high-skilled employment; results in educational attainment - access to basic and higher education; political empowerment, meaning representation in decision-making structures; and health and survival.

The top five performing countries were Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden while those at the bottom of the list were Yemen, Chad, Pakistan, Benin, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Interestingly, two African countries, South Africa (6th) and Lesotho 10th made the Top 10 list.

In the rest of the Caribbean, the Bahamas was 28th; Cuba 29th; Guyana 35th; Jamaica 48th; the Dominican Republic 67th; Suriname 79th; and Belize 88th.

Jamaican women were actually doing better than females in Trinidad and Tobago in economic participation and matched Barbadians in education.