With a near-equal gender balance in the German Government, Germany has moved up to sixth place in a global ranking of equality between men and women.
The slight increase in the proportion of women among parliamentary representatives contributed to Germany’s best-ever result.
Germany moved up four places in the index, which has been compiled by the World Economic Forum (WEF) since 2006.
But the economic gender gap widened further last year, this is according to the WEF report released on Wednesday.
Wage disparity grew, further disadvantaging women compared to their male colleagues.
The WEF report also pointed out that the proportion of women in management positions had fallen back to the 2018 level at 29 per cent.
High equality scores in the German education and health-care sectors were viewed positively.
Iceland again took first place, followed by Norway, Finland, New Zealand and Sweden. Nicaragua, Namibia, Lithuania and Belgium took places seven to 10.
Switzerland slid backwards in the economic and education sectors, from 13th to 21st place.
Austria plummeted from 21st to 47th place, mainly because of the low proportion of female government ministers.
While the global parity score has recovered to pre-pandemic levels, the report said, the overall rate of change has slowed down significantly.
At the current rate of progress, it would take 131 years to reach full parity, the WEF calculated.
dpa/NAN
