For a lot of, Iceland conjures up photos of erupting volcanoes, dramatic glaciers, scorching springs, and eerie black sand seashores, however for all its pure magnificence, the nation can be a champion of ladies’s rights. The truth is, the small island nation gives the very best quality of life and protections for girls on the earth, based on a brand new report by Forbes, which thought of a number of prestigious rankings for 2024, such because the World Peace Index, the World Gender Hole, and the World Happiness Report.
“It [Iceland] has been probably the most persistently gender-equal nation on the earth for the final 15 years based on the GGG [Global Gender Gap], and it is the one nation to ever rating larger than 90 p.c on this report,” the research says.
The Land of Fireplace and Ice can be the highest international peace chief, a title it has upheld for the reason that creation of the World Peace Index in 2009. The nation additionally persistently ranks within the high three for normal happiness. Forbes notes that Iceland has had a feminine president for 25 of the final 50 years. Presently, nearly half of its parliament members, or 30, are feminine. Because of this, the nation has applied insurance policies geared toward stopping gender discrimination, corresponding to a 2018 legislation that imposes day by day fines on firms with 25 or extra staff who fail to pay equal wages for equal work.
Ladies in Iceland and Canada obtain a mean of 13.9 years of education, the very best on the earth (the worldwide common is 8.3), based on Georgetown’s 2024 Ladies, Peace, and Safety Index. Iceland ranked fourth on this survey, with good scores within the monetary inclusion and absence of authorized discrimination classes.
Iceland additionally excels in maternal well being care. The nation grants 13 weeks of paid maternity go away and a further 26 weeks to every dad or mum — all paid at 80 p.c.
Denmark is second on Forbes’ listing of the very best nations for girls to stay in. The nation topped the Ladies, Peace, and Safety Index and has the very best rating for entry to justice.
“Additionally it is one among simply 13 nations the place all girls have entry to a checking account,” Forbes factors out.
Norway is third with the very best rating in maternity well being care and survival, in addition to feminine literacy. Finland, the happiest nation on the earth, is fourth, and Sweden is fifth. All remaining nations within the high ten are additionally in Europe.
Nevertheless, Nordic nations have persistently excessive charges of intimate accomplice violence towards girls, a phenomenon often known as the “Nordic paradox.”
Whereas the gender hole may be very slowly closing, “full parity stays past the attain of one other 5 generations,” Saadia Zahidi, the managing director of the World Financial Discussion board, writes within the preface of the World Gender Hole Index, the place the US ranked forty third.
You may learn extra concerning the findings on forbes.com.