NZ v Switzerland: how they fare on Women, Peace & Security

Crunch time for all teams in Group A today as they face off for their final matches to find out who progresses to the next stage. Off the field, Switzerland leads New Zealand on the Women, Peace and Security Index (WPS) being 6^th in the rankings (Index value: 0.898), putting Switzerland 3^rd among those at the Women’s World Cup. New Zealand is 13^th on the WPS (Index value: 0..873) putting it at 9^th among those at the World Cup.

I looked at elements of New Zealand’s score in my previous blog on digging deeper. But looking at its opponent today: Switzerland scored very high in financial inclusion: 98.9%. The country that did not give women the vote in federal elections til 1971 (and one canton held out til 1990 before allowing women to vote in local elections) – Switzerland increased its share of women in Parliamentary seats from 29.3% to 39% from 2017 to 2021. This was still well below highest scoring NZ at 48.3%. Switzerland scored relatively low in the absence of legal discrimination against women – 85.6% compared to Canada’s 100%.

But the most interesting statistic between the two countries is that women’s perception of community safety in Switzerland rose from 79.7% to 81.9% between 2017 and 2021, while New Zealand dropped to a low 50.3%. Switzerland also topped the group of developed countries for lowest levels of physical or sexual violence committed by an intimate partner, at 2%, while New Zealand’s level was 4%.

Digging Deeper: why NZ is 9th at the WWC on peace & security

I've just been exploring a bit on the basis for the Women’s Peace & Security Index (WPI), and took a closer look at the measures that led to New Zealand’s rank at 13 among the 167 countries examined by the WPI (and 9^th among those competing at the Women’s World Cup).

The WPS Index is assessed using three dimensions of women’s well-being: inclusion (economic, social, political); justice (formal laws and informal discrimination); and security (at the family, community, and societal levels). Performance in these areas is quantified through 11 indicators, where a higher score indicates better performance. The indicators are aggregated at the national level to create a global ranking among the 167 countries. You can see the full set of indicators in the diagram below.

Just delving quickly into New Zealand’s ranking, I noted that it scored highly in Women’s employment, Financial independence, Absence of legal discrimination, and topped Women’s share of parliamentary seats in its group of 25 other developed countries. Indeed, the share of parliamentary seats went from 34.2% in 2017 to 48.3% for 2021.

However – New Zealand scored low among the same countries on women’s perception of community safety, declining from 54.3% in 2017 to 50.3%. Norway (NZ’s first opponent in the football) topped the group well above at 89.5%.

You can find out more detail about any country and the individual indicator levels that make up it’s overall index and ranking at: https://giwps.georgetown.edu/the-index/ (click on the map, or click the country in the alpha drop down list).

 As a side note: for today’s big game in Wellington, based on the WPI, Netherlands and the United States are ranked at 6^th and 14^th respectively among the WWC countries. See the full rankings here.

 

New Zealand v Norway – on the equality indices

With New Zealand due to kick off against Norway today in the Women’s Football World Cup, looking at their rankings in the Women’s Peace & Security Index, Norway come out on top, while New Zealand is 13^th in the index (and 9^th among those appearing in the Football World Cup. See the rankings here.

HOWEVER, in the alternative Women's Workplace Equality Index, New Zealand comes up third (after Australia and Canada) with a 93.6/100 score based on a range of measures such as Accessing institutions, Building credit, Getting a job, and Protecting women from violence (where NZ scores poorly actually). This measures the formal legal obstacles to women’s economic participation, not actual participation. "While there is often a large gap between laws on the books and their implementation, formal legal equality is a critical first step to closing the gap between women and men in the economy." 

However, for a close match on the gender equality front – go to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index 2021 which has Norway and New Zealand at 3^rd (84.95) and 4^th(84%) respectively – after Iceland and Finland (not represented at the World Cup).

On the sporting front, I’d be looking for a close game between NZ and Norway tonight, two of my favourite countries, and with many similarities. But NZ must come out on top!

Women's World Cup 2023 - Ranking the countries on the status of women

Five days out from the opening kick-off in the FIFA Women’s World Cup, below is a table showing how the 32 countries in the tournament rank against each other, based on their standings in the 2021/22 global Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Index, put out by Georgetown University at https://giwps.georgetown.edu/the-index/ . Nothing to do with football, the index gives an insight into women’s status and empowerment in different countries – and that no doubt influences women’s ability to play and perform at international competitions.

I could have chosen a number of different indexes, but chose this one because it seems the most recent and comprehensive in the range of factors taken into account. Other possibilities include the World Economic Forum and the US-based Council on Foreign Relations for Foreign Relations. These both rate New Zealand much higher, so don’t accuse me of national favouritism!

THE RANKINGS:

Country WPS Ranking/170 countries
1 Norway 1
2 Denmark 4
3 Switzerland 6
4 Sweden 7
5 England* 9
6 Netherlands 10
7 Germany 11
8 Canada 12
9 New Zealand 13
10 Spain 14
11 France 15
12 Portugal 18
13 Ireland 19
14 United States 21
15 Australia 24
16 Italy 28
17 South Korea 33
18 Japan 35
19 Jamaica 43
20 Costa Rica 47
21 Argentina 49
22 Philippines 61
23 South Africa 66
24 Brazil 80
25 Panama 83
26 China 89
27 Colombia 90
28 Vietnam 107
29 Zambia 116
30 Nigeria 130
31 Morocco 138
32 Haiti 142
* = UK rank; no separate entry for England

(By the way, credit for the idea of ranking sports contest countries on social justice measures goes to the World Development Movement’s “Who Should I Cheer For?” in the 2010 Mens Football World Cup, and Caritas Aotearoa for its Rugby World Cup 2011 focus on inequality through “Level with Me”. Both blogsites have been taken down now, but you can read about them here: https://globaldimension.org.uk/articles/world-cup-2010-who-should-i-cheer-for/ and https://cathnews.co.nz/2011/09/09/social-justice-week-fairness-an-equal-chance-of-success/ )