The gap between men and women in Bangladesh is less than that in its neighbouring countries — India and Pakistan — says a study report published by World Economic Forum Gender Gap on Thursday.

According to the WEF report Bangladesh ranks 64 while India and Pakistan are in 108 and 144 positions respectively.

The Geneva-based foundation WEF conducted the survey on 145 countries to look at whether men and women have the same rights and opportunities in each country in four areas: health, education, economic participation and political empowerment.

WEF believes it will take another 118 years until the global pay gap between men and women is finally closed.

Women are now earning the amount that men did in 2006, data from the WEF’s Global Gender Gap report says.

The report says nearly a quarter of a billion more women are in the global workforce today than a decade ago.

In several countries, more women are now going to university than men but — crucially — this is not necessarily translating into more women occupying skilled roles or leadership positions, says a BBC report quoting WEF.

As the WEF report states Nordic countries are doing the most to close the gender gap overall, just as they were 10 years ago.
They may not have achieved total equality, but Iceland (1), Norway (2), Finland (3) and Sweden (4) occupy the top four rankings.

Not far behind, though, is Rwanda (6) which sits above the US and the UK in the index. Its high score is down to the number of female politicians active in the country.

The WEF believes only three countries have more women than men in leadership positions: the Philippines, Fiji and Columbia.

The list of countries with most gender gap is Yemen (1), Pakistan (2), Syria (3), Chad (4), Iran (5), Jordan (6), Morocco (7), Lebanon (8), Mali (9), and Egypt (10).

The United States is on 18 which is higher than the United Kingdom (28) and Canada (30).