Global Gender Gap Report, 2024 has been published recently.
Published by: the World Economic Forum, 2006
Key Parameters:
- Educational Attainment
- Economic Participation
- Political Empowerment
- Health and Survival
Key Findings of the Report:
- The global gender gap score in 2024 for all 146 countries included in this edition stands at 68.5% closed. Compared against the constant sample of 143 countries included in last year’s edition, the global gender gap has been closed by a further +.1 percentage point, from 68.5% to 68.6%. When considering the 101 countries covered continuously from 2006 to 2024, the gap has also improved +.1 points and reached 68.6%
- Based on current data, it will take 134 years to reach full parity – roughly five generations beyond the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target.
- The 2024 Global Gender Gap Index shows that while no country has achieved full gender parity, 97% of the economies included in this edition have closed more than 60% of their gap, compared to 85% in 2006.
- Top Global Rankers:
– Iceland, the top ranking country, remains to be the only economy to have closed 90% of its gender gap.
– Top 10 economies belong to the European continent: (we can add a table or a newspaper snippet here) - Iceland (1st, 93.5%), Finland (2nd, 87.5%), Norway (3rd, 87.5%), Sweden (5th , 81.6%), Germany (7th, 81%), Ireland (9th, 80.2%) and Spain (10th, 79.7%).
- Among the 146 economies covered in the 2024 index, the Health and Survival gender gap has closed by 96%, the Educational Attainment gap by 94.9%, the Economic Participation and Opportunity gap by 60.5%, and the Political Empowerment gap by 22.5%.
Key Findings for India:
- With a population of over 1.4 billion, India (129th) has closed 64.1% of its gender gap in 2024. This result places the Southern Asian economy -2 ranks lower than the previous edition, with a marginally lower score (0.17 percentage points).
- This slight regression is mainly the result of small declines in Educational Attainment and Political Empowerment, while Economic Participation and Opportunity slightly improves.
- In the Political Empowerment subindex, India scores within the top-10 on the head-of-state indicator (40.7%). India’s scores for women’s representation at the federal level, in ministerial positions (6.9%) and in parliament (17.2%), remain relatively low.
- Parity in Educational Attainment is well underway, but challenges remain.
- figures in Educational Attainment bring India’s parity levels slightly down from prior scores
- While the shares of women are high in primary, secondary and tertiary education enrollments, they have only been modestly increasing, and the gap between men and women’s literacy rate is 17.2 percentage points wide, leaving India ranked 124th on this indicator.
Gender gaps need to be bridged in the following parameters:
- estimated earned income (28.6%);
- legislative, senior officials, and management roles (14.4%);
- labour-force participation rate (45.9%);
- professional and technical workers (49.4%)
Some initiatives have already been taken in an effort to bridge the gender gap at the grassroot till the top-most level, example:
- Mahilla Sammaan Saving Certificates announced in Budget 2023-24
- Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Account: More than 56% account holders are women –> financial inclusion and economic participation
- 33% reservation for women criteria (local governance, schemes like MNREGA: political and eocnomic participation)
- Poshan Abhiyan, increased number of institutionalized deliveries, access to healthcare (POSHAN Abhiyan, we can cite the key findings of NFHS-5)
- Increased enrolment of girls in secondary education.
