Gender equality is a core developmentobjective in its own right, and it is also asmartdevelopment policy. Gender equality is also a keypathway to ensure lasting poverty reductionand sharedprosperity. This update to the ‘2013 Belarus Country GenderProfile’ seeks to identifywhere progress has been achievedin terms of increasing opportunities for women and meninBelarus since that last assessment and where furtherpolicy action is required. As such, itunderstands genderequality to mean the closing of the gaps between women andmen in areasthat are critical for them to access and takeadvantage of existing opportunities namelyendowments such ashealth and education; economic opportunities, via access tolabor, land andfinancial markets;, and agency, includingnorms, representation, and freedom of violence (WorldBank2016). Overall, Belarus’ ranges better than many countriesin terms of gender equality. Thecountry’s gender gaps aremuch smaller than those observed in other countries in theregion andthe world. The country ranks 30 among the 144countries covered by the 2016 World EconomicForum GlobalGender Gap Index, largely due to its good results oneducation outcomes and theirreflection in the labormarket—Belarus ranks number 1 in terms of female enrollmentin all levelsof education and also when it comes to havingfemale professional and technical workers, and forwomen toenjoy a healthy life expectancy. However, these results aremuted by the pervasivegender wage gap observed in Belarus,leaving the country at place 54 in the global ranking andthelow representation of women in political positions. Whilethe country is among the top thirdof countries when it comesto parliamentary representation –ranks 47 among the 144countrieswith a female parliamentary representation of 27percent, it ranks 108 when it comes to the shareof women inministerial positions, with an overall ranking of 80 forpolitical empowerment.
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