Close India’s Gender Gap to open its competitive potential

Desirée Mohindra, Senior Media Manager,
Tel.: +91 (0)965 089 3041 –  desiree.mohindra@weforum.org

• World Economic Forum’s India Gender Gap Review examines inequalities between men and women
• Closing gender gaps will help further unleash India’s vast economic potential
• India ranks 114th out of 134 countries covered in the Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index 2009
• India’s health gender gap is widening; progress made on economic participation and political empowerment
• For full information, visit www.weforum.org/gendergap

New Delhi, India, 9 November – The World Economic Forum’s India Gender Gap Review released today at the India Economic Summit examines inequalities between women and men. Leaders at the meeting are discussing the factors responsible for the size of India’s gender gap, which, according the Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2009, sees it ranked 114th out of 134 countries measured.

“Girls and women make up one half of the world’s population and without their engagement, empowerment and contribution, we cannot hope to achieve a rapid economic recovery nor effectively tackle global challenges such as climate change, food security and conflict,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum. “The Forum works year-round with leaders on ways to close gender gaps through its Women Leaders and Gender Parity Programme.”

The India Gender Gap Review presents the results of a comprehensive survey assessing the current state of gender-related corporate policies and practices in India.

Only 14% of the companies questioned have 40% or more women among their employees. These women employees are mainly present at the entry and middle levels of management, while very few women attain senior management level. Most companies do not track salary gaps, despite the clear wage gaps between women and men – only 4% of the companies surveyed are attempting to monitor salary gaps.

“Women, as half of the human capital of India, will need to be more efficiently integrated into the economy in order to boost India’s long-term competitive potential. The World Economic Forum’s survey of some of the biggest companies in India shows that, to achieve this integration, Indian companies will need to set targets, improve policies to close salary gaps and promote work-life balance,” said Saadia Zahidi, Co-author of the Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2009 and Head of the Forum’s Women Leaders and Gender Parity Programme.

India has closed 93% of its health gender gap, 84% of its education gap, 41% of its economic participation gap and 27% of the political empowerment gender gap according to The Global Gender Gap Report 2009.

India holds last place among the BRIC countries on the Index, behind Russia (51), China (60) and Brazil (82).

In South Asia, the sub-continent is in second-to-last place behind Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and ahead of Pakistan. Sri Lanka leads in the rankings by far, holding 16th position, followed by Bangladesh (94), Maldives (100), Nepal (110), India (114) and Pakistan (132).

Download the full Global Gender Gap Report 2009 Index: PDF and Excel
*Please note that scores are produced on a zero-to-one scale and can be roughly interpreted as the percentage of the gender gap that has been closed.
 
The World Economic Forum is celebrating 25 years of active engagement in India at its annual India Economic Summit, taking place in New Delhi from 8 to 10 November. This year’s Summit has set a new record for total participation with over 800 leaders from industry, government, civil society and academia from over 40 countries. The theme for this year’s Summit is “India’s Next Generation of Growth”.

Notes to Editors:
• All information is available on www.weforum.org/gendergap
• Download the full Global Gender Gap Report 2009; rankings in PDF and excel; the 134 country profiles and brief country highlights
• For information on the India Economic Summit go to the Forum’s website: http://www.weforum.org/india2009
• Plenary sessions will be streamed live on Livestream: http://livestream.com/worldeconomicforum
• Videos of the plenary sessions will be also available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/worldeconomicforum#p/a
• All Press Releases are at http://www.weforum.org/pressreleases
• Join the Davos Debates in India (link http://youtube.com/davos)
• Download free high-resolution photos from Flickr: http://www.weforum.org/india2009/photos
• Follow the Forum on Twitter at http://twitter.com/davos
• Twitter users should use the hashtag #India09 for all tweets about the event. The short URL is http://tr.im/delhi09
• The official host broadcaster for the India Economic Summit is New Delhi Television (NDTV)
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Ernst & Young, Goldman Sachs, Manpower, McKinsey & Company, NYSE Euronext and Renault-Nissan are Community Partners of the World Economic Forum’s Women Leaders and Gender Parity Programme.

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