New Zealand has slipped one place to sixth position in the world in the 2011 Global Gender Gap report that measures 135 countries, falling behind Ireland.

"While New Zealand has much to be proud of, the report confirms the evidence of the Census of Women's Participation in New Zealand that women's equality is at a tipping point," says Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner, Dr Judy McGregor.

The internationally recognised Global Gender Gap Report 2011's rankings and scores are produced by the World Economic Forum to quantifyand quantifies the magnitude of gender-based disparities and tracks their progress over time.

"There is a stark warning from the latest Global Gender Gap Report. New Zealand can either continue to be a world leader or slide behind those who are maximising the returns on investing in women's education and participation,", Dr McGregor says.

New Zealand in the only country in the top ten to have slipped a place from the 2010 rankings. The Nordic countries are again the winners. Iceland claims leadno 1 position for the third year in a row, followed by Norway, Finland and Sweden. Ireland has jumped over New Zealand and the report states that while both countries show improvement in their scores, Ireland has posted relatively large gains.

Global Gender Gap Index 2011

Country

Score*

Rank 2010

Iceland

0.853

1

Norway

0.840

2

Finland

0.838

3

Sweden

0.804

4

Ireland

0.783

6

New Zealand

0.781

5

Denmark

0.778

7

Philippines

0.768

8

Lesotho

0.766

9

Switzerland

0.762

10

Although no country has yet achieved gender equality, all of the Nordic countries, with the exception of Denmark which is one behind New Zealand, have closed over 80 per cent% of the gender gap and the report states that they serve as "models and useful benchmarks for international comparisons."

The Global Gender Gap Index examines the gap between men and women in four fundamental categories: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment. Part of Its international credibility lies in the fact it evaluates countries based on outcome variables rather then input measures.

"Data relating to economic participation and opportunity and political empowerment collected bv the Human Rights Commission and published in the "http://www.neon.org.nz/census2010/womenscensus2010"Census report every two years, shows New Zealand is slipping by comparison with other like countries in some areas. This has been confirmed by the Global Gender Gap report.