Gender gap

Male-female income disparity is still considerable.

One indicator that speaks volumes on a society’s socio-economics is certainly income disparity between equally-qualified males and females. The problem reaches beyond simple questions of “development” into deeply-entrenched cultural territory. This explains why, according the UNDP figures of the 10 countries with the smallest male-female income disparity, 6 are in Africa (such as Kenya, Mozambique, Burundi, and Tanzania). Some of the best performances also come from South-East Asian countries that are often classified as “poor”, such as Cambodia and Vietnam. They score as well, if not better, than northern European countries, with female to male earnings ratios pegged at 70 to 83%.

In other OECD countries, especially the rest of western Europe and the USA, female incomes equal 50 to 70 % of male incomes, proving that there is still a good deal of work to do before achieving true equality. In Japan, a country where women have traditionally been treated as inferiors, the ratio of female to male earnings averages 45%. The worst reports come from Latin American and Islamic countries, with female salaries amounting to 40% and as low as 15% of male salaries.

These UNDP figures could nevertheless be biased. As with a number of socio-economic data cited by the United Nations, these are official figures and may mask practices that are less equitable still. Moreover, they paint an incomplete picture of the work accomplished by women; in many countries, only a small portion of them work at a paid job.