elected women

In a previous post on the annual Global Gender Gap Report issued by the World Economic Forum, I reported that this year for the first time the U.S. placed in the top 20 gender-equal countries (#19 of 134 nations) and that we are doing well in terms of Economic Participation and Opportunity (U.S. at #6) and Educational Attainment (tied for #1 with 21 other countries). In a subsequent post, I noted that part of what was holding us back was inequality in Health and Survival (U.S. at #38) - which results from U.S. women’s relative lack of access to health care, an issue that 2010’s Affordable Care Act is poised to address beginning in 2014. Today I turn to the final subindex, the heaviest weight in our saddlebags: With a ranking of #40, Political Empowerment is our worst showing.