"Global Gender Gap Index 2025: Top Countries, Shocking Trends & What’s Driving Progress"

Global Gender Gap Index 2025 Revealed: Who’s Leading, Who’s Lagging, and Why It Matters. Gender Equality in 2025: Insights for the Global Gender Gap Index Report. From the Global Gender Gap Index 2025, you can extract important rankings, key takeaways, & surprising changes.

Global Snapshot: Gender Gap Index 2025

Overall Progress
The 19th Global Gender Gap Index covers 148 economies and finds that 68.8 % of the gender gap has been closed—a modest increase of +0.3 pp from 2024. Among a constant set of 100 economies since 2006, the closure reached 69.0 %, indicating steady long-term improvement.

• At the current pace, full gender parity is over a century away—approximately 123 years globally.
• Iceland remains the sole country with an over 90 % score (92.6 %), leading for the 16th consecutive year.
• Top ten performers—all above 80 %—are mainly European: Finland, Norway, Sweden, UK, New Zealand, Namibia, Germany, Ireland, and Moldova.

Subindex Insights

• Health & Survival: 96.2 % closure
• Educational Attainment: 95.1 %
• Economic Participation & Opportunity: 61.0 %
• Political Empowerment: 22.9 %

Economic and political gaps are the largest remaining hurdles. Despite steady improvements, at current rates, political parity needs ~162 years and economic parity ~135 years to close.

Global Gender Gap Index 2025 Breakdown: Where does your country stand?

Overall Standing

• 131st out of 148 countries, with a total gender parity score of 64.4 %
• Dropped two ranks from 129th (2024), but marginally improved in absolute terms (+0.3 pp).

Subindex Performance

1. Economic Participation & Opportunity
   • Score: 40.7 %, up from 39.8 % (2024)
   • Progress in estimated earned income, rising from 28.6 % to 29.9 %
   • Labour-force participation steady at 45.9 %, the highest to date.
2. Educational Attainment
   • Nearly closed at 97.1 %.
   • Gains in female literacy and tertiary enrollment contributed.
3. Health & Survival
   • High parity due to improved sex ratio at birth and healthy life expectancy.
   • Note: both male and female life expectancy have slightly declined globally.
4. Political Empowerment
   • Decline to approximately 10–11 % parity.
   • Female parliament representation dropped from 14.7 % to 13.8 %, ministers from 6.5 % to 5.6 %

Regional Context

• India ranks lowest in South Asia, behind Bangladesh (24th), Bhutan (119), Nepal (125), Sri Lanka (130), Maldives (138), and ahead of Pakistan (148)

Source: WEF| TH| IE

Global Gender Gap Index 2025: Important Key Takeaways

1. Uneven progress across dimensions

• Education and health: almost gender-equal.
• Economic and political spheres: still major gaps requiring urgent attention.

2. Economic gains are modest & insufficient

• India’s ~30 % parity in income and ~45.9 % labour participation remain below global best practices.
• To maximise GDP growth—as observed by economists—raising female labour participation to 50–80 % could add 18–55 % to GDP.

3. Political empowerment is stagnating

• Continued low representation in Parliament (13.8 %) and cabinet (5.6 %) highlights systemic barriers.
• More female voices are needed in national policy, especially for women-centric policies.

4. Legal framework vs ground realities

• India has strong schemes: Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Mahila Shakti Kendra, Sukanya Samriddhi, reservations in local bodies & parliament.
• However, implementation gaps persist: social norms, gendered division of unpaid work, and Dalit women’s marginalisation.

5. Digital & care economy gaps emerging

• Women globally—especially in India—lag in digital/AI skills and in the care economy, bearing a disproportionate burden of unpaid work.
• ILO warns AI puts women three times more at risk of job loss.

Global Gender Gap Index 2025 Revealed: Who’s Leading, Who’s Lagging, and Why It Matters:

Positive Exemplars

Australia (13th globally)
Climbing 11 places from 24th last year, Australia now ranks 13th with notable gains across political empowerment, economic participation, and education. Government reforms—such as improved wages, enhanced healthcare access, robust safety policies, and action against gender-based violence—drove the progress. The country’s balanced approach across the four subindices shows how comprehensive policy coordination can accelerate closing gaps.

Ethiopia (75th)
Ethiopia has surged in political empowerment, now achieving a 48.9 % score, boosted by increased female ministerial representation following its first female president. This case demonstrates that high‑impact political reforms can quickly raise a nation’s overall gender parity prospects, even with mixed outcomes in other areas.

Negative Example

Chad (bottom ten globally)
One of the lowest-ranked, Chad exhibits severe gender inequality: only ~57.6 % overall, with economic participation at 66.7 % and political empowerment under 17 %—highlighting systemic educational and governance deficits. This underscores how weak institutions and poor legal enforcement perpetuate deep gender inequity.

Global Gender Gap Index 2025 Revealed: Strategic Takeaways & Strategic Policy Recommendations for the Nation

Incorporate care economy valuation in GDP, establish national support systems, and redistribute unpaid work via policy.

Boost female labour participation

Expand affordable childcare, paternity leave, safe transport, digital skilling, and rural employment infrastructure.

Strengthen political inclusion

Enforce gender quotas in Parliament, ministries, and political party candidate lists; capacity building for Dalit and rural women.

Address implementation gaps

Close gaps between legal provisions and ground realities via stronger monitoring, community outreach, and gender sensitisation.

Focus on emerging economies & tech

Promote digital literacy and STEM access; ensure AI policies are gender-inclusive.

Adopt integrated reforms

Australia’s holistic policies—from parental leave to anti‑GBV action—serve as a powerful template.

Accelerate political inclusion

Ethiopia’s rise underscores how investing in women’s leadership positions yields rapid parity gains.

Strengthen institutions in lagging countries

Chad’s example shows that without robust systems in education, labour rights, and political quotas, closing gender gaps remains elusive.

Countries committed to gender parity can adopt these lessons—combining layered policy action, political empowerment, and institution-building—for measurable progress worldwide.

Conclusion

While India has made commendable strides in education, health, and economic income, the political representation and labour force participation gaps remain significant roadblocks. Compared to global leaders, India still trails by over 30 percentage points. This Index underscores the interplay of policy intent (laws and schemes) and systemic implementation challenges—at both macro and micro levels—which should be addressed through comprehensive, gender‑responsive strategies.

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