Global Gender Gap Progress Slows Amid Persistent Inequality and Emerging Risks

Full gender equality remains distant; at the current pace, closing the gender gap will take 123 years. In 2025, gender parity reached 68.8%, showing progress, but the pace has slowed since the pandemic. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report analyzes disparities in health, education, work, and politics.

Although women outperform men in higher education, only 28.8% reach senior leadership roles. Political empowerment shows the most progress in 2025, but politics remains the biggest obstacle, with only 22.9% of the gender gap closed.

Equality is uneven across areas. Health and survival gaps are 96.2% closed, followed by education at 95.1%. Workplace equality is lower, with only 61% of the economic gap closed.

The WEF notes that while society supports women’s access to education and health, their inclusion in decision-making remains limited.

Iceland leads in gender equality for the 16th year, followed by Finland, Norway, the UK, and New Zealand. Europe ranks second globally (75.1%), behind North America (75.8%). Italy ranks 85th globally, scoring 70.7%.

Saadia Zahidi, WEF Managing Director, emphasized gender equality as key for economic renewal during uncertain global conditions. The report, in its 19th edition, tracks 148 economies since 2006.

The gender gap in top corporate and political positions

Political empowerment and female leadership remain key challenges. Only 22.9% of the political gender gap is closed. Since 2006, the gap has narrowed by 9 percentage points, but progress is so slow it would take 162 years to close.

Women remain underrepresented in politics, holding fewer than one-third of parliamentary presidencies. While 161 legislatures promote gender equality, leadership is often assigned to women only in equality-focused roles, excluding them from high-level decision-making areas like defense or economy.

In the corporate sector, women make up 41.2% of the workforce and are the majority of university graduates in many developed countries, yet only 28.1% hold senior management roles. Between 2015 and 2024, female leadership rose from 25.7% to 28.1%, with slowing growth since 2022. Career breaks, mostly for caregiving, are more common for women, averaging six months longer than men’s.

This limits companies’ access to talent and challenges ESG investors to reevaluate metrics—female inclusion on boards is now a key performance indicator.

Where the gap between men and women is narrowing the most

European countries dominate the top 10 in gender parity: Iceland (92.6%), Finland (87.9%), Norway (86.3%), Sweden (81.7%), the UK (83.8%), Moldova (81.3%), Germany (80.3%), Ireland (80.1%). New Zealand (82.7%) and Namibia (81.1%) also rank in the top 10.

North America leads regionally (75.8%) with top scores in economic participation (76.1%) and major gains in political empowerment since 2006. Europe follows, having closed about 75% of the gap and improved political parity by 6.3 and economic parity by 8.6 percentage points. However, disparity within Europe remains—Nordic countries lead, while Mediterranean countries lag, including Italy, which ranks near the EU’s bottom.

The EU ranks first globally in political emancipation (35.4%), has closed 68.4% of the economic gap, and is near complete parity in education (99.6%) and health (96.9%).

In other regions, Latin America and the Caribbean rank third (74.5%), advancing 8.6 points since 2006. Sub-Saharan Africa scores 68%, with internal differences, showing that progress is possible across economic levels.

Countries showing strong progress in each income group include Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Ecuador, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia.

Future risks

The 19th Global Gender Gap Report highlights enduring structural barriers for women that risk worsening with technological change and economic fragmentation.

Women in lower-income countries often work in export sectors with better wages, but these jobs are vulnerable to trade contractions. As seen during COVID-19, trade shocks affect women more severely and for longer periods, worsening existing inequalities.

Trade policies in 2025 must consider gendered impacts on jobs, wages, and long-term growth.

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(Featured image by CoWomen via Unsplash)

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