Sri Lanka ranks high in gender equality

Sri Lanka demonstrates greater equality between men and women than most developed nations in the world, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2010 released Tuesday (12)
.Sri Lanka ranked at the 16th place in the Global Gender Gap Index above the United States at 19th and Canada at 20th.
Sri Lanka is distinctive for being the only South Asian country in the top 20 for the fourth consecutive year, the report said.

While Sri Lanka's performance remained steady as it maintained the same rank as 2009, in addition to its higher-than average performance in education and health, Sri Lanka continues to hold a privileged position regarding political empowerment, the report noted.

In the South and East Asian region only Philippines (9) ranked higher than Sri Lanka.

Nordic countries Iceland (1), Norway (2), Finland (3), and Sweden (4) continued to lead the world in eliminating the gender inequality. Ireland (6), Switzerland (10), Spain (11), Germany (13) and the United Kingdom (15) were among the European countries dominating the top 20.

The Global Gender Gap Report's index evaluates 134 countries on how those countries divide resources and opportunities amongst male and female populations, regardless of the overall levels of these resources.

The index is evaluated on four criteria: Economic participation and opportunity ' outcomes on salaries, participation levels and access to high-skilled employment, Educational attainment ' outcomes on access to basic and higher level education, Political empowerment ' outcomes on representation in decision-making structures and Health and survival ' outcomes on life expectancy and sex ratio.