The World Economic Forum has released its Global Gender Gap Report for 2013, and for the fifth year in a row, Iceland has been named the country with the world's smallest gender gap.
This means that women in the Nordic country enjoy the most economic opportunities, health benefits, political participation and options for education.
The United States ranks 23rd on the index, which examined the relative gender gaps between women and men in 136 different countries.
Senior Director and Head of Gender Parity and Human Capital at WEF Saadia Zahidi told the BBC in a recent interview that the purpose of the study was to look at gaps rather than levels.
"The idea is not to tell a poor country that they have less education for women than a rich country - they probably know that already," she said. "But what we are trying to tell them is, what is the gap between women and men in that country regardless of the level of resources or opportunities? How equitably are you dividing whatever you've got in your country between women and men?"
Zahidi explained that the Index considered economic participation and opportunity, education attainment, health and survival and political empowerment differences between men and women in a given country.
New Zealand topped out at number seven, while the United Kingdom was number 18 - five spots higher than the United States. The Russian Federation was ranked number 61 on the list. Brazil took the 62nd spot, while its South American neighbor Nicaragua ranked fifth in political empowerment and 10th overall.
Among the lowest ranking countries were the Ivory Coast, (131), Syria at 133, and Pakistan at 135.
Yemen was the last on the list, at number 136: according to Buzzfeed, education of Yemenis girls is an enormous challenge in the country - at seven years old, most young ladies are forced to get married instead.
Zahidi reported that overall, the gender gap had narrowed slightly worldwide in 2013. 86 of the 136 countries involved in the study demonstrated improvements. But Zahidi acknowledged that these kinds of social and cultural changes wouldn't happen in a speedy fashion.
"Change is definitely slow," she told the BBC.
Check out the full index here.
