The Women's Economic Opportunity Index is an index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit that measures the enabling environment for women's economic participation in 128 countries. The Economist Intelligence Unit's Women's Economic Opportunity Index is based on 29 indicators that measure a country's laws, regulations, practices, customs and attitudes that allow women to participate in the workforce under conditions roughly equal to those of men, whether as wage-earning employees or as owners of a business. [2] The index was first produced in 2010, with an updated index produced in 2012. Three indicators were added and 15 new countries were assessed in the 2012 version of the Index.
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According to the latest issue of the Index, for 2012 Norway and Sweden kept their top positions from 2010 with scores of 90.4 and 88.3, respectively. [2] [3] Chad and Sudan remained at the bottom of the index with scores of 23.3 and 19.2, respectively. [2] [3] Countries that had the most changes from the 2010 index included Kenya, which went from 90th place to 86th place. [2] [3] The Index suggests that this change occurred because the Kenyan government enacted new policies mandating equal pay for equal work, and made sexual harassment in the workplace illegal. Thailand moved up one place from 2010 to 2012; [2] [3] the index claimed that Thai women gained greater support for business skills training more than any of their regional counterparts. Saudi Arabia's score increased from 35.9 in 2010 to 39.7 in 2012 mainly due to a ministerial order that included equal remuneration for men and women. [2] [3]
In 2019, the index was superseded by the World Bank's Women, Business and the Law index.
