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Announcer
Welcome to Stuff Mom Never Told You, from HowStuffWorks.com.
Molly
Hello, and welcome to the podcast. This is Molly.
Cristen
And I’m Cristen.
Molly
Cristen, if you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?
Cristen
Oh, my God. I wasn’t prepared for this. If I could go anywhere in the world right now, I’d go back to bed!
Molly
Oh, Cristen, you’re so clever. Well, I’m taking you on a special trip today via our podcast to Norway.
Cristen
Can we fly first class?
Molly
The best for you, Cristen, only the best. And once we get to Norway, and other parts of Scandinavia, the Nordic countries, we’ll be treated first class all the time, because apparently that area of the world is just the top-of-the-line when it comes to gender equality.
Cristen
Yeah, supposedly Norway, Sweden, Denmark – these are just the havens for women.
Molly
Right. there are these indexes that come out every year. These countries always top the list of countries that have achieved equality, who have closed gender gaps, who have women in powerful positions – all these factors we’re going to talk about today because you see these stories pretty often now. You want gender equality, you go to Norway, go to Sweden. We wanted to know, “Why is Scandinavia so frequently cited as one of the best places for women?”
Cristen
Right, because for instance, the World Economic Forum comes out every year with its Gender Gap Index which analyses countries across the world in terms of gender equality, the state of men and women comparatively in the nation. Last year, like many years – like you said, Molly – in the Gender Gap Index, we have number one Norway followed by Finland, Sweden, Iceland.
Molly
U.S. doesn’t even rank in the top ten.
Cristen
The U.S. is a joke, yeah.
Molly
So, we have to find out what we’re lacking. Some of the factors that this index takes into account – economic participation, educational attainment, political empowerment, and health and survival.
Cristen
Now, Molly, before we go any further, the title of this podcast is Why is Scandinavia So Great for Women? But you wanted to make a little bit of a geographical footnote before we got some emails saying, “Hey, gals, you need to look at a map sometime.”
Molly
Right. the countries that we’re gonna be throwing out there in terms of fun facts for women are Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland. All together, all considered the Nordic countries.