I went back and compared Morocco to Malawi.
It seems that what's pushing Malawi into its high position is that a lot more women are categorized as "participating in the labor force" than in a lot of other countries. I think it's erroneous to conclude that having to work is akin to choosing to work. Women in the western world choose (and in the most developed Scandinavian countries, almost all do work since they don't ever have to make the choice between family and work), but for those in the third it's often a matter of course that every woman works her poor ass off or everyone would starve.
Morocco is in between the third and first worlds socio-economically speaking and thus a lot of middle class families can opt to allow women to stay at home, just as most did in the States and Western Europe 50 years ago. Morocco, however is developing at a blinding pace. I'd almost say it's unprecedented in the whole world and is extremely fascinating to watch first hand. It's being guided by a blessedly liberal and benevolent King who has launched an initiative to promote woman's rights in general and especially to encourage them to go to college and obtain professional employment. The initiative even has a cute name (like the tourist initiative which is called "Plan Azure"), I can't for the life of me remember what it is at the moment.
The ministerial data from that survey just does not jive with my experience in Morocco, however. I suppose the fact that I work in health increases my odds of working with women, but having worked in nine different countries both in Sub Saharan and North Africa I have found that the Ministry of Health here is comprised of mainly females vs. other countries such as Benin, Togo, Burkina, etc. where it's mostly a (really fucking annoyingly obstructionist) old boy's club. I found some data that supports this here:
http://www.awid.org/eng/Issues-and-Analysis/Library/Moroccan-Women-s-Rights-Wear-Royal-RobesOn the political front, the 2002 Electoral Code introduced a novel "national list" that reserved 30 parliamentary seats for women. Currently, women hold 35 out of 325 seats in the lower house, including 30 from the national list as well as five who won in their local districts.So, yea. I think that this survey is not very well put together.
While I don't doubt that the US lags behind most of Western Europe in terms of gender equality, I find it utterly preposterous to assert that it's behind Malawi. I think that the survey needs to weight things like Female Genital Mutilation, # of deaths while in labor, life expectancy, etc. a wee tad heavier to bear any reflection to the real world. Both Morocco and the States have a 0.00 in FGM, while Malawi has a 0.20. That's pretty fucking ridiculous if you ask me.
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