Will take 134 years to close global gender gap: Report

At the current pace it will take the world another 134 years or five generations to close the existing gender gap, the 2024 Global Gender Gap Report released by the World Economic Forum says.

The report, which is released every year since 2006, tracks gender gap in the world on four key parameters, namely, economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. India is ranked 129 among 146 countries in the 2024 report, which is two positions down from where it was in 2023.

The global gender gap in 2024 stands at 68.5%, which is just 0.1 percentage point lower than what it was in 2023. To be sure, the report notes some progress on the gender equality front over in the last two decades. “The 2024 Global Gender Gap Index shows that while no country has achieved full gender parity, 97% of the economies included in this edition have closed more than 60% of their gap, compared to 85% in 2006”, it says.

Iceland has been leading the index for the last fifteen years and remains to be the only country which has closed more than 90% of its gender gap. “Among the 146 economies covered in the 2024 index, the Health and Survival gender gap has closed by 96%, the Educational Attainment gap by 94.9%, the Economic Participation and Opportunity gap by 60.5%, and the Political Empowerment gap by 22.5%”, the report says.

India, which is ranked 129 among 146 countries in the report, is a laggard of sorts even in the South Asian region. It is ranked fifth among the seven south Asian economies included in the report ahead of Maldives (132) and Pakistan (145) but behind Bangladesh (99), Nepal (117), Sri Lanka (122) and Bhutan (124).

“With a population of over 1.4 billion, India (129th) has closed 64.1% of its gender gap in 2024. This result places the Southern Asian economy -2 ranks lower than the previous edition, with a marginally lower score (0.17 percentage points). This slight regression is mainly the result of small declines in Educational Attainment and Political Empowerment while Economic Participation and Opportunity slightly improves”, the report says. “In the Political Empowerment subindex, India scores within the top-10 on the head-of-state indicator (40.7%). India’s scores for women’s representation at the federal level, in ministerial positions (6.9%) and in parliament (17.2%), remain relatively low”, the report added.

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