ABSTRACT
According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), 2016 was "an ambiguous year for global gender parity," as the gender gap widened in 68 countries while being narrowed in 74. There are two main global measures of gender equality. One is the WEF's Global Gender Gap Index. According to WEF data, no country has completely closed the gender gap, although Iceland is the most equal, with other Nordic countries close behind. The other main measure is the Gender Inequality Index (GII), which is built along the same lines as the Human Development Index. Wealth is a less reliable predictor of gender equality than cultural traits. A famous case was that of black women working at General Motors in the US in 1976 who lost their claim of gender discrimination because black male workers suffered similar disadvantages. Similarly, they failed to prove race discrimination because female white workers were also paid less than their male counterparts.
