You have all probably heard of WEF's GGGR report. Basically, it's very biased measure that takes no account of male issues and that assumes that in a given category women are equal even if they are better (obvious example being education and life expectancy, where a country will be rated as equal even if women are better educated and live longer, lol).

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However, it can be used for comparative purposes. Even if the individual rating of a country is BS on its own, we can at least compare it with other countries' ratings. And this is where things get interesting.

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Look up ratings for year 2006, the first year the report was made: Only 25 countries were above 0.700 (that is, 70% "equal"). USA was only slightly above. Some prominent Western countries, such as Switzerland, France, Italy and Austria were below. So, this was a relatively high score.

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If you look up ratings for 2018, the most recent report, you find that a majority of countries are above 0.700 mark. So, average country today is more "equal" than France and Switzerland were in 2006. India, China and indonesia in 2018 score better than France, Italy and Switzerland did in 2006.

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So, if you accept that the report can be used for comparative purposes at least, if you accept that the numbers mean anything, then some questions arise:

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1)If women were not oppressed in France in 2006, then they are surely not oppressed in India and China today. In which case, it's difficult to say where are women oppressed today? Maybe Islamic countries and sub-Saharan Africa?

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2)We can go further back. I can imagine that France's score in 1990s would have been something like 0.600, which is pretty bad, comparable to many of the worst countries in the report, comparable to the Middle East. So, if you don't think that women were oppressed in France in 2006, do you think that women are oppressed in the middle East today in 2018?

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3)If you went even further back, to 1970s, you will find that even Saudi Arabia and Islamic Republic of Iran will beat most Western countries of that era, in terms of women's position. So, if you don't think that women were oppressed in USA in 1970s, then women cannot be oppressed in saudi Arabia and Iran today.

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What do you think about all this?