Global Gender Gap Index 2025: WEF

General Studies Paper-2

Context

• Recently, the World Economic Forum (WEF) released its 19th edition of Global Gender Gap Report 2025.

Global Overview

• Overall Gender Parity: The world has closed 68.5% of the gender gap, a marginal improvement from the previous year.
• Top Performers: Iceland remains the most gender-equal country for the 16th consecutive year, achieving over 90% parity.
• Other top-ranking nations include Finland, Norway and the United Kingdom etc.

India’s Performance

• Overall Rank: India slipped to 131st out of 148 countries, with a parity score of 64.1%.
• Economic Participation: Improved slightly to 40.7%, with a rise in estimated earned income parity from 28.6% to 29.9%.
• Educational Attainment: Scored 97.1%, reflecting strong gains in literacy and higher education enrollment.
• Health and Survival: Showed modest improvement in sex ratio at birth and healthy life expectancy.
• Political Empowerment: Declined, with women’s representation in Parliament dropping from 14.7% to 13.8%, and ministerial roles falling from 6.5% to 5.6%, marking a continued decline from the 2019 peak of 30%.

Regional Insights

• South Asia: India ranks below Bangladesh (24), Nepal (125), and Sri Lanka (130), but above Maldives (138), Bhutan (119) and Pakistan (148).
• Europe: Leads globally with 76.3% parity, surpassing North America.
• Middle East and North Africa: Remains the furthest from parity at 62.6%.

Key Concerns Highlighted in Report

• Time to Full Parity: At the current pace, it will take 123 years to close the global gender gap, highlighting the need for accelerated efforts.
• Economic Disparities: Despite progress, women still earn significantly less than men, with wage gaps persisting across industries.
• Regional Inequalities: Certain regions, particularly South Asia and the Middle East, continue to lag behind in gender parity, facing structural and cultural barriers.