Context: Recently, the  World Economic Forum (WEF) published the 18th edition of the Global Gender Gap Report (2024).

• India ranks 129th on the index, having slipped two places from the previous year.

• Iceland continues to lead the rankings, maintaining its top position.

The top five countries in the Global Gender Gap Index are:

1. Iceland

2. Finland

3. Norway

4. New Zealand

5. Sweden

• Other notable rankings include the UK at 14th and the USA at 43rd place, showcasing varying levels of gender parity across different regions and economies.

India’s Ranking in South Asia

• Within South Asia, India is ranked fifth, trailing behind Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan.

• Pakistan occupies the last position in the region.

• This indicates a pressing need for India to address gender disparities to improve its standing both regionally and globally.

Global Context

• Globally, Sudan is ranked last out of 146 countries, with Pakistan just one place above it at 145th.

• The report highlights that India, along with Bangladesh, Sudan, Iran, Pakistan, and Morocco, has among the lowest levels of economic parity, with less than 30% gender parity in estimated earned income.

Educational Attainment and Political Empowerment

• Despite overall low rankings, India shows notable strengths in certain areas:

• Secondary Education

• India achieved the best gender parity in terms of enrollment in secondary education, demonstrating progress in educational opportunities for women.

• Political Empowerment

• India ranks 65th globally in political empowerment of women. This is particularly highlighted by its 10th place ranking in parity regarding the number of years with female/male heads of state over the past 50 years.

However, India’s scores for women’s representation in federal positions remain low:

• Ministerial positions: 6.9%

• Parliament: 17.2%

Gender Gap Closure and Economic Parity

• India has closed 64.1% of its gender gap in 2024.

• The slight decline in the rankings from 127th to 129th is attributed to small decreases in ‘Educational Attainment’ and ‘Political Empowerment.’

• Conversely, scores for ‘Economic Participation’ and ‘Opportunity’ have shown slight improvements, continuing an upward trend observed over the past four years.

Global Gender Gap Trends

• The WEF reports that globally, 68.5% of the gender gap has been closed.

• However, the progress remains slow, with an increase of just 0.1 percentage points since last year.

• At the current pace, it is projected to take another 134 years to achieve full gender parity worldwide.

Call for Action

• WEF Managing Director emphasizes the urgent need for a renewed global commitment to achieving gender parity, especially in economic and political spheres.

• The projected timeline of 134 years for achieving parity underscores the necessity for decisive and immediate action.

Global Gender Gap Index

• Since launching in 2006, it is the longest-standing index tracking the progress of numerous economies’ efforts towards closing these gaps over time.

• It is published by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

• The Global Gender Gap Index annually benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions:

1. Economic Participation and Opportunity

2. Educational Attainment

3. Health and Survival

4. Political Empowerment

• The Global Gender Gap Index measures scores on a 0 to 100 scale and scores can be interpreted as the distance covered towards parity (i.e. the percentage of the gender gap that has been closed).

• Cross-country comparisons support the identification of the most effective policies to close gender gaps.

Sub-Indices

• Economic Participation and Opportunity: This subindex measured gender-based gaps in workforce participation, remuneration and advancement.

• Educational Attainment: Gender-based gaps in educational attainment were measured with the ratio of women to men enrolled in primary, secondary and tertiary education. The ratio of female to male literacy was also used as an indicator of a country’s long-term ability to educate women and men.

• Health and Survival: The differences between women’s and men’s health were measured using the sex ratio at birth and the gap between women’s and men’s healthy life expectancy.

• Political Empowerment: The gap between women and men at the highest level of political decision-making was measured by the ratio of women to men in ministerial positions and the ratio of women to men in parliamentary positions.

World Economic Forum (WEF)

• The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland.

• It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer Klaus Schwab.

• The foundation’s stated mission is “improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas”.

• Klaus Schwab, a German professor with a background in mechanical engineering and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard, founded WEF in 1971, originally known as the European Management Forum.

• He introduced the concept of “stakeholder capitalism.”

Conclusion

• Despite some bright spots, the slow and incremental gains highlighted in this year’s Global Gender Gap Report underscore the urgent need for a renewed global commitment to achieving gender parity, particularly in economic and political spheres.