By Sandra Ericson For The Register-Guard
In the era beyond #MeToo, I, like most women, am getting accustomed to feeling a little safer — safer from unwanted attention, micro-put-downs and marginalization. A sense of greater value has been granted and gratefully received.
But gratitude for less harassment comes at the risk of not addressing the whole landscape and America’s downward progress for women. Last month the World Economic Forum issued The Global Gender Gap Report 2017. The United States now ranks 49th among the 144 countries measured in terms of progress toward gender parity. Canada, our nearest comparable neighbor, is No. 16.
America is a wealthy, powerful, educated democracy, and yet the No. 49 rank is a drop of four positions from 2016, and 26 positions from No. 23 in 2013. Among the countries that are doing better than we are: Poland, No. 39; Serbia, No. 40; Costa Rica, No. 41; Ecuador, No. 42; Panama, No. 43; Israel, No. 44; Uganda, No. 45; Botswana, No. 46; Bangladesh, No. 47, and Peru, No. 48.
