The best places to be a woman podcast Hello and welcome to this podcast brought to you by That's English!, the Spanish Ministry of Education's official distance learning English course. To find out more about That's English! go to www.thatsenglish.com or contact your local Official School of Languages. Kate: Hi Drew! What are you up to? You look really busy. Drew: Yeah, I'm preparing a seminar paper for my master's degree. Kate: Oh, I see. And what is it about? Drew: Well, it's about the gender gap in different countries. Kate: Oh, that's interesting ... and maybe a bit depressing, especially if you're a woman, I suppose. Drew: Too right. I've just been reading this article, which was published a few years ago by The Independent newspaper. It talks about the best and worst places in the world to be a woman. Kate: Hmmmmm... How do they decide that? Drew: Well, they compare men's and women's access to and participation in education, health, top management positions, politics, employment etc. Kate: I see. And if you take all these things into consideration, which is the best country to live in if you're a woman? Drew: Well, the country where the gender gap is narrowest when you think of education, health, politics and employment is Iceland. Kate: Well, that comes as no surprise. I thought it would probably be a Scandinavian country, like Denmark or Sweden. Drew: Okay, okay...You're very clever. But can you tell me the country which has the most women parliamentarians? Kate: Mmm... I don't know... Australia or New Zealand, may be? Drew: Cold, cold. Kate: Is it a European country? Drew: Cold again. Kate: Well, I have no idea. You tell me. Drew: Rwanda. Apparently over half of the seats in the Rwandan parliament are held by women. Kate: Really? I would never have guessed that. Drew: Yeah - me neither. And, according to the article, the country that has had the longest serving female head of government is Sri Lanka. It says that women have run the country for 23 years. Kate: Well, I didn't know that either, but, if you think about it, a lot of Asian countries have had female leaders, like Indira Gandhi in India or Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan. Drew: Just like the States, eh? It's incredible that we still haven't had a female president. In the UK, you had Mrs Thatcher and then Theresa May, of course. Kate: Indeed. Does the article say if the UK is the best place to be a woman in any field? Drew: Sorry, I'm afraid not. Kate: And what about the U.S.? Drew: Apparently the States is the best place to be a female athlete, because it's the country with more women in the top ten ranking of the best paid sportswomen. Kate: Well, that doesn't surprise me. And, if we think of women workers in general, where should we be living to earn equal pay? Drew: Well, it says here that you should go to either Luxembourg or Norway. Those are the countries where men and women are most likely to earn the same amount of money for doing the same job. The worst place is apparently Saudi Arabia. According to the statistics they give here, a woman only earns $7,157 compared to a man's $36,727 for doing a similar job. Kate: You're kidding!! What a huge difference! Drew: Another study I've seen says that New Zealand is the country with the smallest pay gap, but even there, women still earn 5% less than men. Kate: And what about unpaid work? You know, gender equality at home. Drew: Well, it says here that Danish women spend only 57 minutes more each day than men on household chores. By contrast, Mexican women spend 4 hours 21 minutes more each day than men washing, cleaning, looking after the kids etc. Kate: Is that because Mexico has a more traditional culture? Drew: Probably. But things are changing in countries like Spain and Italy, which also used to be very traditional societies where women used to take care of the children and all the domestic chores. There's a study by Oxford University that says that things have changed a lot over the last two decades. It says that Spain, for instance, in the year 2002, women spent almost 3 hours more than men each day doing the housework, but that by 2009, this had dropped to 2 hours 19 minutes. So things seem to be improving. Kate: Fortunately! And what have you found out about the glass ceiling? You know, the invisible barrier that stops women reaching the top positions in their professions. Drew: Well, in The Independent's article, it says that Thailand has the greatest percentage of women in senior management. However, in a more recent study, published in 2015 by the International Labour Organization, Jamaica tops the list, with nearly 60% of all management posts being held by women. Kate: Well, that's the problem when you are looking at statistics - you have to make sure that the same parameters are used to be able to compare figures. Drew: That's true, but what statistics do agree on is that Japan is the country where fewer management positions are held by women, only 8% in fact. Kate: Gosh! Drew: It's not all bad news for Japanese women, though. Kate: Really? Why's that? Drew: Well, Japanese women have the longest life expectancy in the world. They can expect to live to be 87 years old, 7 years more than Japanese men. Kate: That's probably because they don't suffer all the stress from being in a top management post. Drew: Hah! Hah! Very funny, but I don't think so because Japanese men are number 8 in the top ten life expectancy ranking for men. According to the World Health Organisation, they can expect to live to the ripe old age of 80. Kate: Okay, I was only joking. So which statistic have you found most surprising? Drew: Well, given the poor performance of the Middle Eastern countries, like Saudi Arabia or Oman, in all the rankings, it really surprised me to find out that Qatar leads the world ranking in the proportion of female university students. Apparently, there are six women for every man enrolled in tertiary education. Kate: Well, that's encouraging news. Drew: Yes, it is. In fact, I am thinking of finishing my seminar presentation on this positive note, on the importance of education to close the gender gap. I am going to use this quote by Kofi Annan. Tell me what you think. Kate: Which one? Drew: Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance. Kate: Indisputable. Hear! Hear! Drew: We hope you have found this podcast interesting. If you would like to read the article: The best and worst places to be a woman, you'll find the link at the end of this podcast's transcript. Bye for now! We hope you have enjoyed this podcast, brought to you by That's English! Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter. We look forward to hearing from you. Bye for now! http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/revealed-the-best-and-worst-places-to-be-a-woman-7534794.html