Health is an important social dimension where gender inequalities are seen .The World Economic Forum (WEF, 2005) made the first attempt to assess the size of gender gap around the world. In this report five critical areas were examined, viz., economic participation, economic opportunity, political empowerment, educational attainment, and health & well-being. The report was prepared for 58 countries including India. No country was observed to have managed to eliminate the gender gap. Those countries that succeeded to a great extent in narrowing the gap were the Nordic countries, with Sweden standing out as the most advanced in the world followed by New Zealand (6), Canada (7), United Kingdom (8), Germany (9) and Australia (10). France (13) ranked ahead of the United States (17.) Since then every year one report is published by the WEF and the numbers of participating countries have also simultaneously increased from 58 in 2005 to 142 in 2014. Gradually the world has managed to reduce the gap to some extent.

KEYWORDS: Health, gender gap, political empowerment, women empowerment, human development