The 2009 Global Gender Gap Report was released on 27 October 2009 and Canada ranked 25th out of 134 countries, gaining six places over last year.

The Global Gender Gap Reports, published for the past four years by the World Economic Forum, measures gender based disparities and tracks their progress over that time period.

The report is broken down into four key areas: Economic Participation and Opportunity; Educational Attainment; Political Empowerment; and Health and Survival.

Canada’s highest ranking category was Economic Participation and Opportunity, with a tenth place finish. This category measures labour force participation, wage equality for similar work, estimated earned income, legislators, senior officials and managers, and professional and technical workers.

Other rankings for Canada included 38th for Educational Attainment; 60th for Health and Survival and 62th for Political Empowerment.

The report indicates Canadian women’s labour force participation has increased from 73 percent to 75 percent and women’s estimated annual earned income increased from US $25,448 to US $26,055. Canada also posted gains in political empowerment with a small increase in the percentage of women in Parliament from 21 percent to 22 percent.

Having digested all of this, here is my question: Why is Canada ranked 25th? Canada should be a leader in global gender empowerment and equality. Canada should look at case studies of what the other 24 higher ranking countries are doing and implement changes. Let’s use this report to do better, to check out where the gaps are and build programs to overcome them. My challenge to Canada is to be in the top five next year, not the top 25.

Women now make up approximately one-half of the labour force in Canada. Earning an estimated annual income of US $26,055 with only 22 percent of women in Parliament is hardly something to give us bragging rights.

The report makes the following statement:

“Girls and women make up one half of the world’s population—without their engagement, empowerment and contribution, we cannot hope to effectively meet these challenges nor achieve rapid economic recovery.”

Let’s ensure Canada leads this charge in engaging, empowering and valuing the skills and talent of their female human resource pool to make Canada all it can be.

Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion about areas that you think Canada could do better.