JAMAICA is among the countries in the world seeing an overall decline in its gender parity scores, with a -2.2 percentage-point decline, placing it among the economies whose scores declined the most in the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Index.

However, Jamaica is one of two economies with higher levels of gender parity on the ‘estimated incomes’ indicator, at 80.8 per cent, joining Barbados at 86.6 per cent.

The country’s overall score decline, though, places it behind Rwanda (-3.8 percentage points), Bangladesh (-3.3 percentage points), Laos People’s Democratic Republic (-3.3 percentage points), and Bhutan (-3.1 percentage points).

Jamaica ranks 37th out of 146 countries surveyed, with a parity score of 0.758, compared to 24th in 2023, when it had a parity score of 0.779.

Gender parity refers to the equal contribution of women and men to every dimension of life, whether private or public. For this annual report, gender parity was assessed across four key dimensions — economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. The World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Index is the longest-standing index, that has been tracking the progress of numerous countries’ efforts towards closing these gaps over time since its inception in 2006.

Jamaica saw a decline in three of the four dimensions — economic participation and opportunity (0.810, ranking 8th in 2004 vs 0.894, ranking 2nd in 2023); educational attainment (0.991, ranking 81st in 2024 vs 0.993, ranking 68th in 2023; and political empowerment (0.263, ranking 60th in 2024 vs 0.263, ranking 57th in 2023). There was a slight improvement in health and survival (0.967, ranking 93rd in 2004 vs 0.967, ranking 94th in 2023).

The report showed that compared to last year, a broader number of economies registered increases in their gender parity scores, contributing a narrowing of the overall gender gap. In 2024, 50.1 per cent of economies in the sample report scored increases, 6.1 per cent showed no change in score, and 43.8 per cent reported negative score changes. The economies with the greatest increases in score were Ecuador (+5.1 percentage points), Sierra Leone (+4 percentage points), Algeria (+3.9 percentage points), Guatemala (+3.8 percentage points), and The Gambia (+2.8 percentage points).

For its part, Latin America and the Caribbean ranked third out of eight regions, with an overall gender parity score of 74.2 per cent. The constant country sample shows that since 2006, the region has gone furthest out of all regions, reducing its gender gap by 8.3 percentage points.

The vast majority (86.3 per cent) of the 22 Latin American and Caribbean economies have closed at least 70 per cent of their gender gap. Together with Northern America, it is one of two regions where all countries rank within the top 100. Two Central American countries, Nicaragua (81.1 per cent) and El Salvador (69.5 per cent), are at the top and bottom of the regional table, with an 11.6 percentage-point difference between them.

Meanwhile, Peru, Jamaica, Bolivia, and Barbados all reported scores over 80 per cent in the labour force participation rate, with women having a high level of representation in professional and technical roles. The share of women in legislative, senior officers, and manager roles varies widely within the region: In Honduras, women occupy 29.7 per cent of top roles, compared to 62.1 per cent in Jamaica. Women also have lower estimated incomes than men across all economies, but the two economies with higher levels of gender parity on this indicator are Barbados (86.6 per cent) and Jamaica (80.8 per cent).

The region has made the biggest leap since 2006, the report said, reducing its overall gap by 8.3 percentage points. The region reached its highest economic parity score to date, of 5.7 per cent, a slight uptick of +.5 percentage points from 2023, surging as a result of strong parity in labour force participation and in professional roles. Educational attainment and health and survival remain stable at 99.5 and 97.6 per cent, respectively.

The report noted that though in 2024 gender parity is inching slowly forward, the pace of travel is such, however, that full parity remains beyond the reach of another five generations. Government and business action have been crucial in advancing targets at the national and regional level, it said.