COMMENT | Malaysia currently ranks 103rd out of 146 countries in the newly launched Global Gender Gap Index 2022.

While this is hardly an improvement from its 2021 ranking of 112th, Malaysia still sorely lags behind its regional neighbours namely the Philippines (19th), Singapore (49th), Thailand (79th), Vietnam (83rd), Indonesia (92nd) and Cambodia (98th).

The annual Global Gender Gap Index, launched by the World Economic Forum in 2006, explores and benchmarks the world’s progress towards gender parity based on four metrics: educational attainment, economic participation and opportunity, political empowerment, and health and survival.

While it is promising to observe that Malaysia has...