Belgium is the best country at respecting women's rights, according to the recent gender index from OECD. According to the report, Belgium “guarantees women's rights within the family, protects women from violence, offers equal opportunities and women have equal civil and political rights to men”. Other top countries are Argentina, Mongolia, Trinidad and Tobago.
To create the index, the development centre of the OECD studied fourteen social indicators in five social-economic areas in 160 countries. Among other things considered were the country's attitude towards violence against women or the presence or absence of civil rights for women; “From what age may a woman marry? Do women have the same access to financial services as men?”
Although the report indicated that “there are still challenges”, the OECD countries scored best. “Women have equivalent access to public areas and political debate.” The challenges faced in these countries include unremunerated care, which affects women more than twice as much as men, and politics.
In other parts of the world “women are discriminated against every day”, points out the report. The worst scoring countries are in the Middle East and North Africa.
