WEF Global Gender Gap Report 2023

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has recently released the 17th edition of the Global Gender Gap Report 2023. This report assesses and evaluates the level of gender parity in 146 countries worldwide.

Global Gender Gap Report

The Global Gender Gap Report is an annual report created by the World Economic Forum that measures gender equality across four dimensions:

• Economic Participation and Opportunity
• Educational Attainment
• Health and Survival
• Political Empowerment

The Global Gender Gap Index is scored on a scale of 0 to 1, with 1 representing perfect gender equality. The index is updated annually, and the most recent report was published in June 2023.

The Global Gender Gap Report is a valuable tool for tracking progress toward gender equality. It can help governments, businesses, and civil society organizations to identify areas where more work needs to be done to close the gender gap.

Key Findings of the Global Gender Gap Report 2023

Global Gender Gap Score

• The global gender gap score for this year is 68.4%, reflecting a slight improvement of 0.3% compared to the previous year.
• However, the report highlights that at the current pace of progress, it would still take 131 years to achieve full gender parity. This indicates a notable slowdown in the overall rate of change toward gender equality.

Top Ranking Countries

• Iceland has continued to hold its position as the top-ranked country in terms of gender equality for the 14th year in a row, with an impressive gender gap score of 91.2%.
  • Notably, Iceland is the only country that has managed to close over 90% of its gender gap.
• The report also recognizes three other Nordic countries—Norway (87.9%), Finland (86.3%), and Sweden (81.5%)—which have secured spots in the top five rankings. This highlights the consistent commitment of these nations to promoting and achieving gender equality.

Health and Survival

• There has been significant progress in closing the gender gap in health and survival, with a remarkable 96% closure globally.
• This indicates that disparities in areas such as life expectancy and access to healthcare have considerably reduced.

Political Empowerment

• The report highlights the persistent gender gap in political empowerment.
• The current closure rate stands at 22.1%, indicating a slower pace of improvement in this area.
• At the current rate, it is projected to take approximately 162 years to achieve gender parity in political empowerment worldwide.

Educational Attainment

• There has been a lot of progress in closing the gender gap in education.
• Almost 95.2% of the gap has been closed, showing that more girls and women are getting equal access to education.
• It is expected that the gender gap in educational attainment will be fully closed within the next 16 years.

Economic Participation and Opportunity

• There are still big challenges in achieving gender equality in the workforce.
• The gender gap in economic participation and opportunity is quite significant, with a score of 60.1%.
• This means that there are still differences in things like job opportunities and wages between men and women.
• It is estimated that it will take around 169 years to completely close this gender gap in economic participation and opportunity.

India’s Performance in the Global Gender Gap Report 2023

India’s Rank

• India has shown notable improvement in gender equality, moving up from the 135th position in the previous year to the 127th position out of 146 countries in the Global Gender Gap Report 2023.
  • Compared to its neighboring countries, India’s ranking surpasses Pakistan (142nd), Bangladesh (59th), China (107th), Nepal (116th), Sri Lanka (115th), and Bhutan (103rd).
• India has witnessed an increase of 1.4 percentage points and has climbed 8 positions since the last edition of the report.
  • This advancement signifies a partial recovery towards achieving gender parity levels similar to those observed in 2020.

As of the report, India has closed 64.3% of the overall gender gap, reflecting the progress made in various aspects of gender equality. While there is still work to be done, these positive developments highlight India’s commitment to reducing gender disparities and promoting equal opportunities for all.

Health and Survival

• India has witnessed a positive shift in its sex ratio at birth, with a 1.9% improvement after a period of slow progress lasting over a decade.
• Despite this improvement, India, along with countries such as Vietnam, China, and Azerbaijan, still faces challenges in achieving higher scores on the Health and Survival sub-index.
  • These lower scores are primarily attributed to skewed sex ratios, highlighting the need for continued efforts to address gender disparities and promote equitable access to healthcare and survival opportunities for all individuals.

Political Empowerment

• India has made significant progress in the area of political empowerment, reaching a parity level of 25.3%. This indicates an improvement in the participation and representation of women in political decision-making processes.
  • Notably, the current report highlights that women now represent 15.1% of parliamentarians in India, which marks the highest level of representation since the first report was published in 2006.
• Furthermore, in terms of local governance, 18 countries, including Bolivia, India, and France, have surpassed the milestone of 40% representation of women.
  • In India specifically, women’s representation in local governance stands at 44.4%, indicating substantial progress in promoting gender equality at the grassroots level.

Gender Parity in Education

• India has made notable advancements in achieving gender parity in education, with equal enrolment rates observed across all levels of education.
• This achievement signifies positive progress in ensuring equal access to education for both boys and girls in the country.

Economic Participation and Opportunity

• India continues to face challenges in the domain of economic participation and opportunity.
• The gender parity achieved in this area is relatively low, standing at 36.7%.
• While there has been some improvement in wage and income parity, there has been a slight decline in the representation of women in senior positions and technical roles.

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WEF Global Gender Gap Report 2023 – FAQs