India lags on women’s advancement in Asia-Pacific: Survey

MUMBAI: India has the lowest overall score of 44.2 of the 16 Asia-Pacific markets surveyed as part of The MasterCard Index of Women’s Advancement even though it has improved from the 38.1 it scored in 2007. Across the region, New Zealand had the highest overall index score of 77, followed by Australia (76), the Philippines (72.6) and Singapore (70.5). On the other hand, India (44.2), Bangladesh (44.6), Sri Lanka (46.2) and Bangladesh had scores below 50, indicating much more needs to be done to achieve gender parity.

The index, which measures the socioeconomic standing of women across the Asia Pacific, consists of three main indicators which are derived from additional subindicators: employment (workforce participation, regular employment), capability (secondary education, tertiary education) and leadership (business owners, business leaders, political leaders).

Scores are indexed to 100 males to indicate how close or how far women in each of the 161 markets covered by the research are to achieving socio-economic parity with men. A score under 100 indicates gender inequality in favour of males while a score above 100 indicates inequality in favour of females. A score of 100 indicates equality between the sexes.

Women in India (+39.6), Bangladesh and China have made the biggest improvements in regular employment over the past nine years. Women in Bangladesh (102.4) have attained gender parity while India (99.9) and China (99.6) come close.

Despite the lack of progress made in workforce participation (59.8, no change) and the attainment of basic and advanced knowledge assets (85.7, no change), Indian women are still positive about their well-being in life. According to the MasterCard Women’s Well-being Index, Indian women’s regard for their well-being in life increased from 69.6 to 73.3 placing them second in ranking among all 16 markets surveyed and trailing only Indonesia at 74.3. India has gained across all major components measured: work and finances (up 4.5 points to 72.2), safety from threats (up 5.3 points to 72.8), satisfaction (up 3.6 points to 74.1), personal well-being (up 3.1 points to 73.7) and voice (up 2 points to 73.6).