Egypt ranked 135 out of 149 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report for 2018 (pdf), after having ranked 134 out of 144 countries in last year’s report. Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Finland occupy the top four positions, while Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, and Yemen hold the bottom four. Egypt is one of the four lowest-performing countries in terms of political and economic leadership, and is one of six countries in the world where more than 90% of managerial positions are held by men. There also remains no legal framework in Egypt against gender-based discrimination in hiring or setting wages, the report notes. On the upside, Egypt’s ranking in the education subindex has improved “due to smaller gender gaps in literacy and tertiary education — as well as progress on gender parity in professional and technical workers.”

Globally, “the progress towards parity continues to be very slow,” the report notes. However, more countries have improved than have worsened — “out of the 144 covered both this year and last year, 89 countries have at least marginally closed their gender gap and 55 have regressed.”