Nicaragua, top 5 in the Global Gender Gap Report 2020
By Guy José Bendaña-Guerrero & Asociados

The report presents a decidedly mixed picture. Overall, the quest towards gender parity has improved, ducking back under a century and registering a marked improvement on the 108 years in the 2018 index. Greater political representation for women has contributed to this, but overall the political arena remains the worst-performing dimension.
The top 5 countries are Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Nicaragua. According to the report, Nicaragua has, to date, closed nearly 80% of its gender gap, the 5th best performance in the world. Nicaragua has already achieved gender parity in Educational Attainment and Health and Survival, and has the third-lowest Political Empowerment gender gap in the world (43.5% yet to close). Notably, Nicaragua has more women in ministerial positions than men, and has been led by a female head of state for almost seven years of the past 50.
Although Nicaragua attains a strong performance overall, there are still some important areas for improvement to better leverage female talent in the labour market. In parallel, further investments in skills and education should support better opportunities for all Nicaraguan citizens.
