Global General

Gender gap persists in Brazil: UNDP

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-11-05 12:58

RIO DE JANEIRO - Despite having elected a woman as president, Brazil still offers fewer opportunities to its female population, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) said Thursday.

Brazil ranked 80th among the 138 countries in the UNDP's gender equality list, with a Gender Inequality Index (GII) of 0.631. The indicator goes from zero to 1 and the higher the GII, the more gender inequality a country has.

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The ranking takes several factors into account, including the maternal mortality ratio, the adolescent fertility rate, the education gap between men and women, and the presence of women in the Congress and in the labor market.

According to the UNDP, the maternal mortality ratio in Brazil is high with 110 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. In Norway, which was considered the most gender equal country in the world this year, the maternal mortality ratio is seven for every 100,000 live births.

The ratio of teenage pregnancies in the country is also significantly high. A total of 75.6 out of every 1,000 Brazilian adolescents aged 15 to 19 are pregnant. In Norway, the figure is only 8.6.

Moreover, the UNDP report shows that there are more Brazilian women with at least a high school education than men, but the presence of women in the labor market is much smaller. The presence of Brazilian women in the country's politics is also low. Only 9.4 percent of the Congress seats are occupied by women.

According to the UNDP, the gender gap in the world has diminished in the past years. However, in some countries the gap is still considerably high, with women enjoying less than half the education of men.