Report: The world may not achieve gender equality for another 131 years

According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2023, the world may not achieve gender equality for another 131 years. This means that women may not attain parity with men until 2154, given the slow rate of progress. The report highlights that the gender gap across various dimensions has only closed by 0.3 percent since the previous year.

The report measures equality across 146 countries using the Gender Gap Index, which evaluates economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. The index was first introduced in 2006, and since then, there has been a 4.1 percentage point advancement towards parity.

Key findings from the report indicate that it would take 131 years to close the overall gender gap, 169 years for economic parity, 162 years for political empowerment, and no clear timeline was given for health and survival. However, educational attainment parity might be achieved in 16 years.

While no country has achieved full gender parity, the top nine countries that have closed the gender gap by at least 80 percent are Iceland, Norway, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, Germany, Nicaragua, Namibia, and Lithuania. Iceland has consistently topped the list for 14 years, with 91.2 percent of its gender gap closed.

The United States dropped from 27th to 43rd place in the rankings, with a parity score of 74.8 percent. The decline is attributed to the political empowerment index. The lowest-ranked countries on the list include Pakistan, Iran, Algeria, Chad, and Afghanistan, with Afghanistan having the lowest score below 50 percent.

The report attributes the overall gender gap to slow progress in political empowerment and a regression in women’s economic participation. Major setbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as economic and geopolitical crises, have disrupted previous progress.

India improved its position in the rankings, reaching 127th out of 146 countries. The country has closed 64.3 percent of the overall gender gap, achieving parity in education but lagging behind in economic participation and opportunity. India also made progress in political representation, with women holding 15.1 percent of parliament seats.

The report notes improvements in India’s sex ratio at birth, but it highlights the skewed ratios in countries like India, China, and Vietnam as a factor contributing to their relatively low rankings in the health and survival index.

Overall, the report calls for renewed and concerted action to address the persistently large gender gaps worldwide.