In this map ESG Investing presents three metrics that provide a first glance indication of the roles of women at the national level, perhaps throwing some light on issues of gender equality (UN Sustainable Development Goal 5). These are: i) fertility rate (births per woman), ii) proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments (%) and iii) ratio of female to male labour force participation rate (%) (modeled International Labour Organization estimate).

Whilst numerous factors – cultural, religious, etc. – complicate the use of these metrics as any kind of indicator of gender inequality, they provide a flavour for the status of women’s rights and a basis for comparing the position of women in society on a country-by-country and regional basis. Most obviously missing is information about the kinds of jobs carried out by women in the labour force and information about the general level of educational opportunities for women compared to men.

Source: The World Bank Group, 2020
(Data is from 2019, except for the fertility rate which is 2017).

To use the map
Click on the menu item ‘Map & Tools’ in the top right hand corner and you will see the ‘Layers & Legend’ menu. To turn off the ‘BirthsPerWoman’ layer untick the box. ‘The WomenInParliament’ layer should now appear. Untick this layer to see the WomenInLabourForce layer.

To view the legends
Hover your cursor over the coloured icon next to the tick box.

To view the data for a specific country
Click on the country of interest and open up the drop down menu for each layer (ignore the number that appears immediately under the layer title).