The United States dropped six places to 31st in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) gender gap index, because of an erosion of women’s participation in the economy and persistent shortcomings in public affairs.

“Where the United States underperforms is political empowerment. It has a lower than world average, that pulls down its world ranking,” said Saadia Zahidi, the co-author of the Forum’s report.

The United States scored 70 percent in the 128 nation table, where 100 represents no disparity between men and women.

Top-ranked Sweden scored 81.46 percent, while bottom-placed Yemen scored 45.1 percent.

Zahidi said the gender gap was not only a human rights issue, but also an economic one.

“Countries that are not capitalizing upon the talent pool available in their countries — that’s one half of the talent pool available — are going to be undermining their competitive potential in the long run,” she told journalists.

Globally, progress has been made since last year in narrowing the gap between women and men in economic participation, but on health it grew, according to the Forum.

The Philippines (6th) and New Zealand (5th) broke European dominance of the top ten, while Baltic states Latvia (13th) and Lithuania (14th) were the fastest rising of the top-ranked countries due to the growing economic and political prominence of women, according to the Forum.

Most Asian countries, apart from Sri Lanka (15th), Vietnam (42nd) and Thailand (52nd) were in the lower half of the ranking with scores below 67 percent.

Despite the relative strength of many west European nations on gender issues, some economically well-developed European nations lagged behind in the gender ranking.

France (68.2 percent) rose 23 places because of improving opportunities for skilled women professionals, but only to 51st, despite its top ratings on women’s health and education.

Switzerland plummeted 12 places to 40th due to revised United Nations data revealing a stronger than expected disparity between women’s and men’s wages, while Italy (65 percent) languished in 94th place, undermined by male-dominated politics and outcast women professionals.

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