Best and worst countries to be a woman: From motherhood to business, politics, sports
On this Women's Day, inequality between men and women persists in all corners of the world but some countries are better than others. The Independent on Sunday has explored the best places to be a woman today:
1. The best "overall" place to be a woman is Iceland. It offers great equality between men and women in politics, education, employment and health indicators. The worst is Yemen, and the most dangerous is Afghanistan. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world to ban women from driving.
2. Best place to be in power or politics: In Rwanda, females make up the majority of parliamentarians. In Sri Lanka women have run the country for 23 years. Also, Thailand has the greatest percentage of women in senior management (45 per cent). The worst countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar, Oman and Belize, have no women in parliament.
3. Best place to be a mother is Norway, with low risks of maternal mortality – one in 7,600 – and skilled help at nearly all births. Also, Greece is the world's safest place to give birth, with a one in 31,800 risk of dying in childbirth. The worst is Afghanistan, where a woman is at least 200 times more likely to die during childbirth than from bombs or bullets. Also, the worst place to have a baby is thought to be the world's newest country, South Sudan. There are fewer than 20 midwives in the whole country.
4. Best place for labour force participation is Burundi. Pakistan is the worst, where the labour force is made up of four times as many men as women.
5. Best places to earn money are Luxembourg and Norway. In these countries, when income is capped at $40,000, women and men are as likely to earn the same amount. The lowest female earners are in Saudi Arabia, where women earn $7,157 to men's $36,727.
6. Best place to go to university is Qatar, where six women are enrolled in tertiary education for every man. The highest education level is in Lesotho where 95% of women are literate. But questions remain as to whether high education has led to the integration of women into the economies of Qatar and Lesoto.
7. Best place to live long is Japan, where women can expect to live longest (87), beating men by seven years. Female life expectancy is shortest in Lesotho (48), but only two years less than men.
8. Best place to be an athlete is US (America). Five of the top 10 highest-paid female sporting athletes in 2011 were from the US. The worst country, Saudi Arabia, has never sent a female athlete to the Olympics and bans girls from sports in state schools.
Although not mentioned in The Independent article, Iran is expected to rank high in population of women in university, women in prison (especially political prisoners), plastic surgery and cosmetic consumption.
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»This is a summary of the original feature in Farsi. To request a more extensive translation of the Farsi text, please contact us.
