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Journalism of Courage
World Economic Forum Gender Gap Index Report 2024: Women and girls represent half of the world’s population and, therefore, half of its potential. As the UN rightly puts it, gender equality, besides being a fundamental human right, is essential to achieving peaceful societies with full human potential and sustainable development.
As the fight for gender equality has been a long-standing global challenge, how is the world progressing on it? The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) latest Global Gender Gap Report 2024 findings are a mixed bag.
The gender gap closed at 68.5 per cent in 2024, a slight 0.1 percentage point improvement from the previous year. The global health and survival gender gap has closed by 96 per cent. The educational attainment gap has closed by 94.9 per cent, the economic participation gap has closed by 60.5 per cent, and the political empowerment gap has closed by 22.5 per cent.
However, achieving full gender equality will still require considerable work, as the report finds that it will take 131 years to reach full parity between women and men, which translates into five generations, until the year 2158, beyond the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target.
Not so surprisingly, Europe leads the 2024 regional gender gap rankings, having closed 75% of its gap in 2024, an overall improvement of +6.2 percentage points since 2006, and the Middle East and North Africa rank last among all regions, with a gender parity score of 61.7%. Despite this result, the region has seen an overall positive trajectory since 2006, advancing its gender gap score by +3.9 percentage points.
Southern Asia ranks seventh among eight global regions, with a gender parity score of 63.7 per cent and an improvement of 3.9 percentage points since 2006, with Bangladesh, for the first time in the region, having achieved a double-digit rank of 99.
In India, economic participation and opportunity for women have seen a slight improvement, with them doing relatively well in the political empowerment parameter (65th) compared to the other indices. However, its overall performance within Southern Asia is particularly concerning as India has closed only 64.1 per cent of its gender gap in 2024, resulting in an overall rank of 129th, marginally lower than 2023’s (127), ahead of only the Maldives and Pakistan.
Even though no country has achieved full gender parity yet, on a more positive note, the Global Gender Gap Report reveals that out of 146 countries in the world, the top 10 countries have significantly closed the gender gap, inspiring and leading the way forward in terms of gender parity.
Notably, Iceland continues to lead the global rankings with 93.5% of its gender gap closed, maintaining its position as the top-performing economy in the index for over a decade and a half. Out of the remaining nine economies in the top 10, an impressive eight have closed over 80% of their gender gap.
| Rank | Country | Overall score | Economic Participation & Opportunity | Educational Attainment | Health & Survival | Political Empowerment |
| 1 | Iceland | 0.935 | 0.815 | 0.992 | 0.962 | 0.972 |
| 2 | Finland | 0.875 | 0.796 | 1 | 0.97 | 1 |
| 3 | Norway | 0.875 | 0.799 | 0.993 | 0.962 | 1 |
| 4 | New Zealand | 0.835 | 0.741 | 1 | 0.966 | 1 |
| 5 | Sweden | 0.816 | 0.794 | 1 | 0.963 | 1 |
| 6 | Nicaragua | 0.811 | 0.642 | 1 | 0.978 | 1 |
| 7 | Germany | 0.81 | 0.676 | 0.987 | 0.972 | 0.604 |
| 8 | Namibia | 0.805 | 0.783 | 1 | 0.98 | 0.456 |
| 9 | Ireland | 0.802 | 0.737 | 1 | 0.964 | 0.507 |
| 10 | Spain | 0.797 | 0.732 | 0.998 | 0.966 | 0.494 |
| Where does India stand in WEF’s Global Gender Gap Index 2024? | ||||||
| 129 | India | 0.641 | 0.398 | 0.964 | 0.951 | 0.251 |
*Please note, the scores are from 0 to 1, where 1 = parity.*
Source: World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Index 2024
The fight for gender equality is far from over, but the progress, albeit slow, is a testament to the collective efforts of nations, organisations, and individuals around the world. Achieving it demands that governments and businesses shift both resources and mindsets towards a new paradigm of economic thinking where gender parity is embraced as a condition for equitable and sustainable growth.
Hence, through collaborative efforts and targeted interventions between governments and businesses, we can make 50/50 a reality and create a more equitable and prosperous future for all.
