Bangladesh is the only country to feature in the top 50 of the Global Gender Gap Report 2020 released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Tuesday. It is the best performing country in South Asia in reducing the gender gap for women.<br />'' <br />'' Bangladesh retains its position at the 50th rank in the index that measures gender gap in political, economic and social spheres in a country.<br />'' <br />'' According to the Index, Bangladesh has marginally improved its score by 0.4 percentage points but falls two positions compared to its last status.<br />'' <br />'' The report however points out that considerable room exists to improve the basic rights and economic and political prospects of women. The report says that the average estimated annual income of women is only 40 percent of the men in Bangladesh.<br />'' <br />'' In the economic sphere women participation in workforce in Bangladesh went up from 34 percent in 2017 to 38 percent in 2018. The male participation ratio in the workforce for the same period is 84 percent.  <br />'' <br />'' The report says that the largest gender disparity in the world remains in political empowerment.<br />'' <br />'' The WEF Gender gap report points out that going by the current rate of improvement it will take 71 years to fully close the gender gap in the South Asia region. Overall for the world, it will take 99.5 years to close the gap.<br />'' <br />'' Iceland is the most gender-equal country in the world for the 11th time in a row. It is followed by Norway, Finland and Sweden.<br />'' <br />''<br />''The WEF has been bringing out the Global Gender Gap Index since 2006 to measure the relative gap between men and women on health, education, economy and politics. This year the report provides ranking for 153 countries.<br />