TIRANA, Nov. 6 – Albania climbed a huge 24 steps to rank 38th among 144 global economies and become the Western Balkans best performer in the 2017 Global Gender Gap, a report measuring the gap between men and women in economic participation, educational attainment, health and survival rates as well political involvement.
The 2017 rating, when Albania registered its best ever ranking 12 years after the annual World Economic Forum report was first published, was mainly dedicated to major progress in women’s political empowerment following a sharp increase in women MPs and women holding ministerial positions in the past year.
“Albania climbs up the ranks significantly on the back of notable progress on the political empowerment subindex, making up for some of its slow progress on this dimension in past years,” says the World Economic Forum report.
With 48 women MPs, about a third of the 140-seat Parliament and ten women holding ministerial positions ahead of the June 25 general elections, Albania ranked 31st out of 144 countries in this year’s report.
Albania also had 10 women in ministerial positions ahead of the June 25 general elections when the 21-member government also included several female caretaker ministers proposed by the opposition Democratic Party.
The situation following the June 25 general election has slightly widened the gap in women’s political empowerment as only 39 women, slightly more than a quarter of the 140-seat Parliament, managed to be elected MPs in the past general elections and only seven women were included in the new smaller Socialist Party government of 15 members.
The ranking will apparently be reflected in next year’s report when Albania is expected to lose ground unless it narrows the gap in health and survival, currently ranking the country 137th and other indicators. Albania’s sex ratio at birth at a female to male ratio of 0.93 indicates the presence of sex-selective abortions, a phenomenon that is still present in the rather patriarchal Albanian society.
In 2015, there were 110 boys for each 100 girls, according to INSTAT, the state statistical office.
Traditionally Albanian families have favored boys over girls for two main reasons: the inheritance of the family name and the prospect of boys growing up to become breadwinners.
The report shows Albania still has a lot to do in narrowing gender gaps in educational attainment and economic participation and opportunity.
While women dominate enrolment in tertiary education, ranking Albania the world’s top performer with a female to male ratio of 1.4, males hold a slight advantage in literacy rate and enrolment in primary and secondary education.
Albania’s poor performance in the economic participation and opportunity index, ranking the country 70th out of 144 economies, is hampered by women’s low labor force participation, huge differences in estimated earned income and the low number of women legislators, senior officials and managers.
In the same subindex, Albania ranks third for wage equality for similar work and the world number one for women professional and technical workers.
“Gender parity is fundamental to whether and how economies and societies thrive. Ensuring the full development and appropriate deployment of half of the world’s total talent pool has a vast bearing on the growth, competitiveness and future-readiness of economies and businesses worldwide,” says the 2017 Global Gender Gap index.
