While there has been a slight improvement in closing of the global gender gap, it would still take as long as five generations – or over 100 years – to close at the current pace, said a report. The largest gap is in political participation of women, with top-level positions remaining largely inaccessible for women globally. But this is a historical election year with 60 nations going to the polls, and it could augur well for the closing of the gender gap.
According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2024 by the World Economic Forum, at the current pace it would take 134 years – equivalent to five generations – to achieve full gender parity. The world has closed 68.5 per cent of the gender gap, the report says. Since last year, the gender gap has closed by 0.1 percentage points, it added.
Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director, World Economic Forum said that despite the improvement, there is urgent need for a renewed global commitment to achieve gender parity. “We cannot wait until 2158 for parity.The time for decisive action is now,” said Zahidi.
GENDER PARITY
The report added that parity in the global labour force participation is recovering, reaching 65.7 per cent, up from the COVID-19 pandemic low of 62.3 per cent.
The WEF report stated that women’s representation in the political sphere has increased at the federal as well as local level. It is set to improve this year that sees elections in multiple nations. Half of the economies in the Global Gender Gap Index made incremental progress, significant disparities remain, it said. There have been positive shifts in economic participation, political empowerment and health and survival edged forward but educational attainment saw a small decrease.
GENDER GAP SCORES
The report added that Latin America and the Caribbean achieved an overall gender parity score of 74.2 per cent, as well as the highest economic parity score to date of 65.7 per cent, driven by increased labour force participation of women, as well as the second-highest political empowerment score of 34 per cent.
The six most-improved countries are: Ecuador (+34, ranked 16th), Sierra Leone (+32, ranked 80th), Guatemala (+24, ranked 93rd), Cyprus (+22, ranked 84th) and Romania and Greece (+20, ranked 68th and 73rd, respectively).
Europe continues to lead with a gender parity of 75 per cent. Seven of the top 10 countries are from Europe. Iceland is the most gender-equal country, with 93.5 per cent of its overall gender gap. Finland, Norway, Sweden, Germany and Ireland, are all closing over 80 per cent of their gender gaps. Europe's overall parity score has improved by 6.2 percentage points since 2006.
North America comes second with a score 74.8 per cent, and strong performance in educational attainment (100 per cent) and health (96.9 per cent). Economic participation also remains high at 76.3 per cent.
Latin America and Caribbean region has a score of 74.2 per cent, with the greatest improvement in any of the regions. It has made encouraging improvements in workforce participation.
East Asia and Pacific region ranks fourth with a score of 69.2 per cent, with high economic participation and opportunity score. Educational and health outcomes are strong but political empowerment lags behind.
Central Asia follows with a score of 69.1 per cent. Despite near-parity in educational attainment and health, both economic and political parity scores have regressed since 2023.
Sub-Saharan Africa has a score of 68.4 per cent, with significant progress in political empowerment. However, economic participation and educational attainment present challenges.
Southern Asia has a score of 63.7 per cent, The region has made notable improvements in educational attainment since 2006 but struggles with economic participation and some dimensions of political empowerment, such as representation at ministerial level and in parliament, the report said. Bangladesh leads the region, followed by Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Middle East and North Africa come in last with a score of 61.7 per cent. Despite low scores in economic participation and political empowerment, the region has seen marked improvements in educational attainment since 2006. Labour-force participation remains low too. The UAE and Israel are the top performers in the region.
WORKFORCE PARTICIPATION
Women’s workforce participation remains below men’s in nearly every industry an economy, with women accounting for 42 per cent of the global workforce and 31.7 per cent of the senior leaders. Additional factors, such as gender gaps in professional networks and care responsibilities are slowing economic progress for women, the report stated. Closing the gap could increase global GDP by more than 20 per cent.