Gender gaps continue to persist across the world, and more so in the MENA region, Nesma Nowar leafs through a new World Bank report ender equality, or equality between men and women, is not only a core development objective in its own right, but also a smart way to achieve development, the recently launched World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development says. It finds that creating better opportunities and conditions for women and girls could raise productivity, improve outcomes for children, make institutions more representative and therefore advance development prospects. According to the report, countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have made rapid progress in improving women's education and longevity, and in lowering fertility levels. It shows that among the developing regions of the world, MENA achieved the largest decline in the maternal mortality ratio (59 per cent) between 1990 and 2008. "Inequality between the two genders diminished gradually in Third World countries," said Sudhir Shetty, World Development Report co-director, during a video conference addressing the Middle East press in Cairo last week. He said that a clear example for the narrower gap between the two genders is that currently females outnumber males in universities in the Middle East. However, the bad news is, Shetty said, that many other gender inequalities persist. Remaining gaps include the lower school enrolments of disadvantaged girls, excess deaths of girls and women, relative to men, especially in low and middle income countries and unequal access for women to economic opportunities and incomes, whether in the labour market or entrepreneurship. Unequal access to working opportunities is particularly evident in the Middle East region. "The rate of women's employment in the Middle East is only 26 per cent which is half the global average," Shetty said. He added that removing barriers before women in the economic field could raise the average productivity per person by 25 per cent. The report further finds out that among the remaining gender gaps women have less say over decisions and less control over resources in their households. This is proven by the weak representation of women in parliaments worldwide with an average of 20 per cent; women representation in the Middle East's parliaments is half this average. Shetty explained that gender gaps of different kinds emerge from certain market mechanisms, social norms, laws and income growth in households. According to the report, conservative social norms and legal restrictions on mobility and choice across MENA could limit women's decision-making power and their ability to participate in society outside the home. Moreover, this exclusion is compounded by limited job opportunities for all MENA citizens. "High rates of youth unemployment are a particular challenge for the region, and women are disproportionately impacted," the report said. Consequently, the World Development Report 2012 calls for action in four areas: addressing human capital issues, such as excess deaths of girls and women and gender gaps in education; closing earning and productivity gaps between women and men; giving women a greater voice within households and societies; and limiting the perpetuation of gender inequality across generations. In order to overcome such gender inequalities, the report said that governments' policies would need to target the root causes of gender gaps pointing out that globalisation could make the mission easier. The report shows that forces such as trade openness and the spread of cheaper information and communication technologies have the potential to reduce gender disparities by connecting women to markets and economic opportunities, reshaping attitudes and norms among men and women about gender relations, and encouraging countries to promote gender equality.
