How fast do you expect the global gender gaps to close within the next 10 years?

The Global Gender Gap Report was first published in 2005 by the World Economic Forum. The 2008 report covers 130 major and emerging economies.

The Report’s Gender Gap Index ranks economies according to their gender gaps and their scores can be interpreted as the percentage of the gap between women and men that has been closed. Information about gender imbalances to the advantage of women is explicitly prevented from affecting the score. The three highest ranking countries have closed a little over 80% of their gender gaps, while the lowest ranking country has closed only a little over 45% of its gender gap.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Gender_Gap_Report

When you look at 2010 report the US ranks number 19, while the top four countries are all Scandinavian. Quite remarkable I think.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Gender_Gap_Report#2010_Rankings

I was also surprised by some of the lower rankings, for example Mexico, Italy and the Czech Republic. I wonder why this is so?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gendergap2008.PNG

How will this change in the future? How optimistic are you? How optimistic are our female jellies?

What are some of the key reasons for the current distribution?