It's Official: Iceland Is The Best Place In the World To Be a Woman

For five years in a row, Iceland has been rated the country with the world's smallest gender gap by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The rating means Iceland is the country where women enjoy the most equal access to education and healthcare. It is also where women are most likely to be able to participate fully in the country's political and economic life.

Iceland is joined at the top of the The Global Gender Gap Report, 2013 by its Nordic neighbours Finland, Norway and Sweden. Overall, the gender gap narrowed slightly across the globe in 2013, as 86 of 133 countries showed improvements. However, "change is definitely slow", says one of the report's authors, Saadia Zahidi.

Explore the maps below to find out how countries compare overall - as well as in key areas of daily life, such as in health, education, employment and politics.

Overall gender gap

Europe has seven countries in the top 10. The UK is 18th and the US is 23rd.The Philippines, at fifth, is the highest ranking Asian nation and Nicaragua is the highest-placed country from the Americas, at 10th.

The G20 group of leading industrial nations has no representative in the top 10, nor do the Middle East or Africa.

Top countries

1. Iceland
2. Finland
3. Norway
4. Sweden
5. Philippines
6. Ireland
7. New Zealand
8. Denmark
9. Switzerland
10. Nicaragua

In short: It's awesome to be a woman if you're in Iceland. In Yemen, not so much.

Source: bbc.co.uk
Iceland24, October 2013

Iceland's Prime Minister - The Stream Full Interview

Iceland's Prime Minister, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, was on Al Jazeera's show The Stream yesterday. Watch the full interview below.

They talk about the country's economic rebound and various other subjects. Check it out:

On 17 May 2013 Icelandic media reported that Sigmundur Davíð, as chairman of the Progressive Party, would become Iceland’s next prime minister while the leader of the Independence Party, Bjarni Benediktsson, would take up the position of Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs. 

He is the youngest prime minister in the history of the Icelandic Republic and the world's youngest democratically elected head of government (born 12 March 1975).

Iceland was one of the hardest-hit countries in the 2008 financial crisis. The government's response was heavily criticised, yet it ultimately pulled the country out of a recession. Iceland's story of recovery is often portrayed as a strategy that bailed out the people, contrary to other Western nations that chose to assist their financial institutions.

But admiration for the government's economic policies is not shared by all Icelanders. After dealing with years of rising debt and higher costs of living from inflation, citizens voted out their centre-left government in April, and replaced it with the centre-right parties largely blamed for creating the country's original economic disaster.   

The new government has promised to improve living standards by reducing taxes and homeowner's debt.

Source: Al Jazeera

Iceland24, September 2013