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By Lee Hyo-jin

Korea still has a long way to go to achieving gender equality, especially in terms of guaranteeing equal access for women in economic participation and employment opportunities, according to a recent report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The country ranked 99th out of 146 countries covered in the gender gap rankings this year in the annual Global Gender Gap Report, according to international organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday.

Since 2006, the WEF has been releasing the annual study, which measures the extent of the gender gap across the world based on four key indicators: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.

Korea, which has remained near the bottom of the list, has shown little improvement in recent years. It ranked 102nd out of 156 countries in 2021, 108th out of 149 countries in 2020 and 115th among 149 countries in 2019.

This year, the country's score in terms of overall performance stood at 0.689 out of 1 ― ranking 99th. The benchmark varies between 0 and 1, with 1 being full gender parity.

Of the four key areas, Korea performed worst in economic participation and opportunity. The labor participation rate of women stood at 53.39 percent, ranking 90th. The rate of women in parliamentary and high-ranking managerial positions stood at 16.27 percent, ranking 125th.

In terms of the political empowerment of women, the report found that only 18.6 percent of members of parliament were women and 27 percent of ministerial positions were held by females. It also noted the country has had only one female state leader.

The country performed fairly well in educational attainment. There was almost no gender gap in the literacy rate, but the enrollment rate in tertiary or post-secondary education among women was 19 percentage points lower than that of men.

Although Korea attained high scores in terms of access to health, the study pointed out that women were not guaranteed equal rights regarding reproductive autonomy.

Looking at other nations, Iceland remained the most gender-equal country, topping the list for 13 consecutive years, with a general score of 0.908. It was followed by Finland at 0.860, Norway at 0.845, New Zealand at 0.841 and Sweden at 0.822.

In Asia, the Philippines was the best-performing country on the index in 19th place, while Japan ranked 116th and China 102nd.

Globally overall, the WEF said that the world has reached only 68.1 percent gender parity this year, rising from 67.9 percent in 2021. At the current rate of progress, it is estimated that it will take another 132 years to reach full gender equality.