Women's Day

From the BBC:

"Where's the Best Place to Be a Woman"

For five years in a row, Iceland has been rated the country with the world's smallest gender gap by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The rating means Iceland is the country where women enjoy the most equal access to education and healthcare. It is also where women are most likely to be able to participate fully in the country's political and economic life. Iceland is joined at the top of the The Global Gender Gap Report, 2013 by its Nordic neighbours Finland, Norway and Sweden. Overall, the gender gap narrowed slightly across the globe in 2013, as 86 of 133 countries showed improvements. However, "change is definitely slow", says one of the report's authors, Saadia Zahidi.

Overall gender gap:

Europe has seven countries in the top 10. The UK is 18th and the US is 23rd.The Philippines, at fifth, is the highest ranking Asian nation and Nicaragua is the highest-placed country from the Americas, at 10th.  The G20 group of leading industrial nations has no representative in the top 10, nor do the Middle East or Africa.

Top countries

1. Iceland

2. Finland

3. Norway

4. Sweden

5. Philippines

6. Ireland

7. New Zealand

8. Denmark

9. Switzerland

10. Nicaragua

^  Today is International Women's Day (a non-working holiday in Russia, the Ukraine and most of the former Soviet Union.) This list is not that surprising to me (although I was surprised to see the Philippines and Nicaragua) and not even Canada or the UK. Even though Women's Day isn't celebrated in most of the world-  since it is seen as a Communist holiday - it is still a good day to remember the women in your life. At the same time you are doing that you should take a minute to remember the grandmothers, sisters, daughters, wives, girlfriends in Russian-occupied Ukraine who only want to celebrate this holiday in peace and can't this year. ^

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-24650912