According to the study, Bangladesh has jumped 25 notches to 47th place in the Global Gender Gap ranking,
According to the World Economic Forum, Bangladesh has managed to close just under 72 percent of the gender gap.
Bangladesh scored 0.719 (with complete parity at 1) on the gender parity index and was ranked the highest among the South Asian nations. Maldives came second in the region at 106, with India at 108, Sri Lanka 109, Nepal 111, Bhutan 124 and Pakistan 143.
“Bangladesh (47) further consolidates its position as the region’s top performer and climbs several spots this year, recording progress across all dimensions of the Economic Opportunity and Participation subindex,” it said.
The South Asia region, however, is the second-lowest scoring in the 2017 Global Gender Gap Index, performing better than the Middle East and North Africa and worse than Sub-Saharan Africa and other regions. The average remaining gender gap in South Asia is 34 percent.Gender parity in Bangladesh has improved among legislators, senior officials, managers, professionals and technical workers and in terms of earned income and wage equality.
There has, however, been a slight widening of the healthy life expectancy gender gap, the report said.
Bangladesh’s strongest category was political empowerment, where the country ranked 7th among 155 countries. It performed worst in economic participation and opportunity, in which it currently ranks 129th.