Global Gender Gap Report 2025

  • 14 Jun 2025

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The 19th edition of Global Gender Gap Report 2025 was released by World Economic Forum (WEF).

Key Highlights:

Countries Covered: 148

Global Parity Status:

  • Overall Gender Gap Closed: 68.8%
  • Estimated Time to Full Parity: 123 years (at current pace)

Assessment Criteria (Four Dimensions):

  1. Economic Participation and Opportunity
  2. Educational Attainment
  3. Health and Survival
  4. Political Empowerment

The index uses a parity score (0–100%) to quantify gender equality, where 100% indicates full parity.

India’s Performance (Rank: 131/148)

  • Parity Score: 64.1%
  • South Asia Rank: Among the lowest; only Maldives (138) and Pakistan (148) rank below
  • India’s 2024 Rank: 129 (slipped 2 positions in 2025)

Domain-wise Performance:

  • Economic Participation and Opportunity
    • Improved: Score increased by 0.9 percentage points to 40.7%
    • Earned Income Parity: Rose from 28.6% to 29.9%
    • Labour Force Participation: Stagnant at 45.9%
    • Insight: Despite income parity gains, the gap in actual earnings and participation remains wide.
  • Educational Attainment
    • Near Parity Achieved: 97.1%
    • Driven by rising female literacy and higher tertiary enrolment
    • Challenge: Translating education into workforce participation remains limited.
  • Health and Survival
    • Marginal Gains: Improved parity in sex ratio at birth and healthy life expectancy
    • However, overall life expectancy declined for both genders, muting the parity effect.
  • Political Empowerment
    • Significant Decline:
      • Women MPs fell from 14.7% to 13.8%
      • Women ministers dropped from 6.5% to 5.6%
    • Trend: Continued decline from the 2019 peak of 30% female political representation

South Asia and Global Comparison

  • Bangladesh: Best performer in South Asia, ranked 24th globally (up by 75 positions)
  • Other Neighbours:
    • Bhutan (119),
    • Nepal (125),
    • Sri Lanka (130),
    • Maldives (138),
    • Pakistan (148 – last)
  • Global Top 5 Countries:
    1. Iceland (Top for 16th year in a row)
    2. Finland
    3. Norway
    4. United Kingdom
    5. New Zealand

Key Global Insights

  • Women in Workforce: 41.2% of global workforce
  • Leadership Representation: Only 28.8% of leadership roles are held by women
  • Despite post-pandemic recovery in gender parity, leadership gaps and decision-making roles remain major bottlenecks.

Implications for India

  • The report underscores that gender parity is not just a social imperative, but also crucial for inclusive and resilient economic growth.
  • India’s sluggish progress in political empowerment and gender wage gap highlight the need for institutional reforms, affirmative actions, and gender-sensitive policies in governance, employment, and leadership.