Ireland is the fifth best place in the world for women, according a new global survey. 
The finding comes after a report from OECD in May showed that Irish women had a better overall quality of life than men when a range of different factors were taken into account.
The new survey, entitled the 2012 Global Gender Gap Report, measures the gap between men and women in “four pillars”: economic participation and opportunity (labour force participation, wage equality, income, etc) educational attainment (literacy rate, primary and secondary level enrolment, etc), health and survival (sex ratio, life expectancy, etc), and political empowerment (parliamentary seats, years of head of state or government).
It is published by the World Economic Forum.
Each pillar is measured based on the individual country, so those more developed do not have an advantage based on economic development.
It found that Ireland came first across a number of key measures. It ranked number one in terms of gender equality in the areas of literacy and enrolment in secondary and third level education.
It also ranked first in female participation in professional and technical occupations, and in the category of the number of years in which Ireland has had a female head of state in the last 50 years.
Census figures from 2011 showed that women are more likely to have a third-level qualification than men and are less likely to leave school early. Their incomes have gone up to 73 per cent of the average man’s. Hourly wages are at 94 per cent.
Ireland came in at number five on the list for the second year in a row. The country has been steadily moving up the ranks since 2006 when it was ranked 10th.
Iceland still holds the top spot for the fourth year in a row.
The United States slipped from being 17th among other countries in 2011 to 22nd this year. The US was ranked 31st in 2009.
The United Kingdom also appears to have moved backward instead of forward in recent years. They have seen a steady lowering from position nine to this year’s 18.
The OECD report in May showed that men are more likely than women to be in paid employment (64 percent vs 58 percent respectively).
However, women report slightly higher levels of life satisfaction than men, live longer, are better educated, less likely to be victims of violent crime, and are slightly more likely than men to report they have the right kind of social support in their lives.
While women on average earn less than men and are less likely to be found in senior positions, they also work shorter hours than men, are better educated, live longer and suffer less stress than their male colleagues.
Seventy five percent of women in Ireland have successfully completed second level education compared with 68pc of men.
On average, Irish girls outperformed boys by 12 points, more than the average OECD gap of nine points on reading literacy, maths and sciences scores.
