Knowledge Nugget: Why Global Gender Gap Report 2025 is important for your UPSC exam

Why in the news?

The 19th edition of the Global Gender Gap Report 2025 was published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) with the global gender gap at 68.8 per cent for 148 countries, marking the strongest annual advancement since the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet full parity remains 123 years away at current rates. The report shows that across all dimensions in 2024, the gender parity has risen, and in 11 of the 14 indicators, marking a notable acceleration from last year’s result. No country has yet achieved full gender parity.

Key Takeaways:

1. The Global Gender Gap Index is released annually by the WEF. It was first introduced in 2006 to benchmark the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. The index lies between 0 and 1, with 1 denoting complete parity. The gender gap is the distance from full parity.

2. “Among the 148 economies covered in the 2025 index, the Health and Survival gender gap has closed by 96.2%, the Educational Attainment gap by 95.1%, the Economic Participation and Opportunity gap by 61.0%, and the Political Empowerment gap by 22.9%”. The report said. Women represent 41.2 per cent of the global workforce, but a stark gap persists with women only holding 28.8 per cent of top leadership positions, as noted in the report.

3. Iceland retains the world’s most gender-equal economy for the 16th consecutive year, closing 92.6% of the gender gap – the only economy to reach 90% parity- followed by Finland, Norway, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. Bangladesh emerged as the best performer in South Asia, jumping 75 ranks to rank 24 globally. Nepal ranked 125, Sri Lanka 130, Bhutan 119, Maldives 13,8 and Pakistan 148.

India’s performance

4. India has ranked 131 out of 148 countries, slipping two places from its position last year. The Indian economy’s overall performance improved in absolute terms by +0.3 points. With a parity score of just 64.1 per cent, India is among the lowest-ranked countries in South Asia. In 2024, India ranked 129.

5. In Economic Participation and Opportunity, India’s score has improved by +0.9 percentage points to 40.7 per cent. The parity in estimated income rises from 28.6 per cent to 29.9 per cent, positively impacting the subindex score.

6. In educational attainment, the report said, India scored 97.1 per cent, reflecting positive shifts in female shares for literacy and tertiary education enrolment, which result in positive score improvements for the subindex as a whole.

7. “India also records higher parity in health and survival, driven by improved scores in sex ratio at birth and in healthy life expectancy,” it said. However, similar to other countries, parity in healthy life expectancy is obtained despite an overall reduction in the life expectancy of men and women, the report said.

8. In terms of political empowerment, India experienced a slight decline in parity (-0.6 points) since the last edition. Female representation in Parliament falls from 14.7 per cent to 13.8 per cent in 2025, lowering the indicator score for the second year in a row below 2023 levels. Similarly, the share of women in ministerial roles falls from 6.5 per cent to 5.6 per cent.

Top 10 countries closing the gender gap in 2025

BEYOND THE NUGGET: Important Indices on Gender

📍Gender Inequality Index (GII): GII is published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in their Human Development Report. It measures gender inequalities in three key dimensions — reproductive health, empowerment, and labour market. The score ranges from 0, where women and men fare equally, to 1, where one gender fares as poorly as possible in all measured dimensions. India has a GII value of 0.403, ranking it 102 out of 172 countries in 2023.

📍Gender Development Index (GDI): It is published by UNDP. GDI measures gender inequalities in achievement in three basic dimensions of human development: health, education, and command over economic resources, measured by female and male estimated earned income. According to the Human Development Report 2025, the 2023 female HDI value for India is 0.631 in contrast with 0.722 for males, resulting in a GDI value of 0.874.

📍Global Gender Parity Index (GGPI): It is a composite scheme developed by UNDP and UN Women to assess the status of women’s achievements relative to men’s in four dimensions of human development: life and good health; education, skill-building and knowledge; labour and financial inclusion; and participation in decision-making.

📍Women’s Empowerment Index (WEI): It is a composite index developed by UNDP and UN Women to measure the level of women’s empowerment across five dimensions: health, education, inclusion, decision-making, and violence against women. A value close to 1 indicates higher empowerment across the five dimensions, and a value close to 0 indicates lower empowerment. India’s score is 0.52.

Post read question

Which of the following gives ‘Global Gender Gap Index’ ranking to the countries of the world? (UPSC CSE 2017)

(a) World Economic Forum

(b) UN Human Rights Council

(c) UN Women

(d) World Health Organization

(Source: India slips to 131st position in Global Gender Gap Index 2025, WEF Gender Gap Index 2025: Top 10 best and worst countries for gender parity, Where do women stand in global indices? Must-know insights for UPSC aspirants, Knowledge Nugget: Why Human Development Report 2025 is UPSC essential)

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