When it comes to ranking countries based on best places to live or quality of life, it's easy to see a certain pattern emerge. Scandinavian countries, as well as Iceland, tend to place at the top of the list, thanks to their global healthcare and childcare policies, among other reasons.
But those aren't the only areas in which Scandinavian countries (and Iceland) shine. In the World Economic Forum's (WFE) annual Global Gender Gap Report, released Tuesday, this region was at the top once again, while some surprising nations made their way into the top 10.
Based on four main criteria — economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment — the report looks at how women are faring in countries around the world, and examines the circumstances that have led to these positions.
Canada, which was ranked twentieth last year, raised up one spot to 19, though still falling far behind countries such as Latvia and the Philippines. According to the report, both Canada and the United States have closed nearly 75 per cent of the gap, meaning the disparity between men and women is still at 25 per cent on these indexes.
Unsurprisingly, the appointment of several women into ministerial political positions helped push Canada's score up, though that number has changed as 2014 has progressed. There was a small decrease in economic participation and opportunity, as well as health and survival, which the report did not detail.
Canada's best ever ranking on the report was in its first year, 2006, when the country was ranked 14th out of 115 countries.
Take a look at the top 20 countries for women in 2014, as well as the bottom 20:
Global Gender Gap Report 2014
#3: Norway(01 of11)
Open Image ModalScore: 0.8374Best Category: Educational attainment Rank last year: #3Report highlights: Norway is also the strongest performing country from the region on the "wage for equal work indicator" (credit:Alamy )
#4: Sweden(02 of11)
Open Image ModalScore: 0.8165Best Category: Political empowerment Rank last year: #4Report highlights: Sweden is among the best performers in Europe and Central Asia on two political empowerment indicators (credit:Alamy )
#7: Rwanda(03 of11)
Open Image ModalScore: 0.7854Best Category: Political empowerment Rank last year: N/AReport highlights: Rwanda closed its gender gap on labour force participation, enrollment in primary education, sex ratio at birth and women in parliament (credit:Andy Rouse via Getty Images)
#8: Ireland(04 of11)
Open Image ModalScore: 0.7850Best Category: Political empowerment Rank last year: #6Report highlights: Ireland has dropped two spots since 2013, but overall, has a strong presence in politics (credit:Alamy )
#9: Belgium(05 of11)
Open Image ModalScore: 0.7809Best Category: Political empowerment Rank last year: #11Report highlights: It is Belgium's first time in the top 10 (credit:archer10 (Dennis)/Flickr)
#12: Germany(06 of11)
Open Image ModalScore: 0.7780Best Category: Political empowerment Rank last year: #14Report highlights: Germany scores high on its overall good performance on the economic participation and opportunity, and educational attainment (credit:Alamy )
#15: Latvia(07 of11)
Open Image ModalScore: 0.7691Best Category: Educational attainment, Health and survival Rank last year: #12Report highlights: Latvia is among the three countries from the region that have closed both the educational attainment and health and survival gender gaps (credit:Alamy )
#16: France(08 of11)
Open Image ModalScore: 0.7588Best Category: Educational attainment, health and survival Rank last year: #45Report highlights: It is the first time that France enters the top 20 (credit:Allan Baxter via Getty Images)
#18: South Africa(09 of11)
Open Image ModalScore: 0.7527Best Category: Health and survival Rank last year: #17Report highlights: On the political empowerment subindex, South Africa has consistently improved its performance, with a 2014 score of 0.397 (it was 0.326 in 2006) (credit:Alamy )
#19: Canada(10 of11)
Open Image ModalScore: 0.7464Best Category: Educational attainment Rank last year: #20Report highlights: We move up one spot to 19th place, having closed 75 per cent of its overall gender gap, up from 74 per cent in 2013 (credit:Hans-Peter Merten via Getty Images)
#20: United States(11 of11)
Open Image ModalScore: 0.7463Best Category: Economic participation and opportunity Rank last year: #23Report highlights: In 2014, parity has been surpassed for professional and technical workers, where 55 per cent of them are now women (credit:Alamy)