Global Gender Gap Report: Still 134 years to go until global gender parity is achieved

134 years: that is how long it will take to achieve gender parity worldwide. This impressive figure comes from the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report, which is published annually and whose 2024 edition was released last week. The report measures the current status of gender equality in 101 countries and ranks them according to various dimensions.

Part of the report is a ranking of all countries based on their level of gender equality achieved to date. Seven of the top ten places are occupied by European countries, including Iceland in first place and Germany in seventh place. New Zealand, Nicaragua, and Namibia also feature in the top ten. The bottom places are primarily occupied by North African and Middle Eastern countries such as Morocco, Algeria, and Pakistan.

The report also distinguishes between four different “gender gaps” and measures for each one in percent how far these gaps have already been closed. The area of “health and survival” is almost closed at 96%, followed by education (94.9%) and economic participation (60.5%). In the economic sphere, there was a particular increase in equality in the labor market last year. In contrast, the number of women in legislative and managerial positions declined again.

Far behind is the gap in political participation, which is only 22.5% closed. To change these unequal conditions, the report calls for targeted investment and appropriate legislation. In addition, specific attention should be paid to the area of AI in order to ensure an equal distribution of skills and enable women to participate equally in the field of new technologies. In this way, the authors of the report hope to accelerate the path to complete parity.

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