The World Economic Forum (WEF) published its annual Global Gender Gap Report (June 2025). The report annually benchmarks gender parity across 148 economies across four key dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment.
Human Level’s Take:
- At the current pace, it will take 123 years to achieve full gender parity worldwide. That’s a slight improvement from last year’s estimate of 132 years - but progress remains uneven across different dimensions
- Among the 148 economies covered in this year’s Global Gender Gap Index, the Health and Survival gender gap has closed by 96.2%; the Educational Attainment gap by 95.1%, the Economic Participation and Opportunity gap by 61.0%, and the Political Empowerment gap by 22.9%
- Even as more women enter the workforce, they continue to face systemic barriers: Gender-based industry segregation means women are still concentrated in lower-paid, people-oriented jobs. Emerging tech like GenAI is likely to disrupt roles where women are overrepresented. Leadership gaps remain - women are still significantly underrepresented in senior roles. Career breaks are another hurdle: women are 55.2% more likely to take breaks than men, often for full-time parenting. These breaks last longer on average (19.6 months for women vs. 13.9 months for men), with long-term consequences like reduced lifetime earnings, wider pension gaps, and weakened retirement security
- So, what can companies do? Companies can consider adopting gender-sensitive approaches in the workplace and value chain. For instance, improving maternal and parental policies by offering comprehensive support that extends beyond basic leave, including flexible work arrangements and return-to-work plans. They can invest in skills training to ensure that women are prepared for changes to the workforce due to developments like artificial intelligence. They can also partner with governments and advocate for robust public care systems. Reducing the care burden on women gives them more opportunity to sustain and advance their careers
Some key takeaways:
- The current situation: There has been progress in closing the global gender gap over the last 12 months. Last year, it was reported that it will take 132 years to reach full gender parity globally. This has been reduced to 123 years this year. Each of the top 10 ranked economies (Iceland; Finland; Norway; UK; New Zealand; Sweden; Republic of Moldova; Namibia; Germany; Ireland) have closed at least 80% of their gender gaps, with European countries occupying eight of the spots. Regionally, there are three regions positioned to close their gap within the next century: Latin America and the Caribbean (57 years), Europe (76 years) and Northern America (89 years). In addition, the pathway to full gender parity varies across the four dimensions. Among the 148 economies covered in the 2025 index, the Health and Survival gender gap has closed by 96.2%; the Educational Attainment gap by 95.1%, the Economic Participation and Opportunity gap by 61.0%, and the Political Empowerment gap by 22.9%. While disparity remains highest in political and economic dimensions of the index, substantive progress has been recorded to date in these dimensions. Since 2006, there are now more senior women officials, managers and legislators, and more women in professional and technical roles, ministerial positions and legislative bodies. However, women remain underrepresented in ministerial positions that shape economic strategy, defence and infrastructure.
- Gender-based industry segregation persists: While women’s workforce participation has increased at both workforce and leadership levels, gender-based industry segregation persists. Women continue to be concentrated in lower-paying, people-centric industries like healthcare and education. Better gender balance across sectors can boost innovation, address talent shortages and close wage gaps. This is even more critical in a context where artificial intelligence and automation are rapidly redefining the skills and roles, with women more likely to hold roles disrupted by GenAI. In addition, while women are increasingly outperforming men at tertiary education, they still remain underrepresented in the workforce and in leadership roles. For instance, only 29.5% of tertiary educated senior managers are women. This highlights systemic inefficiencies in translating skill preparedness into economic engagement and leadership and, at the same, opportunities to bridge this gap.
- Robust care systems are key to advancing gender parity: Women are 55.2% more likely to take career breaks than men, and for longer durations (on average, 19.6 months compared to 13.9 months) largely due to full-time parenting. This can carry long-term economic costs for women including reducing lifetime earnings, widening pension gaps and weakening economic security into retirement. Insufficient, inaccessible and unaffordable care services contribute directly to women being forced to step away from their career paths and into unpaid caring roles. Even though the care economy is worth at least over six times the value of the space economy, governments and businesses are slow to position care as a core pillar of workforce planning and economic productivity. Therefore, robust care systems and integrating care into workforce planning is important to build a more resilient and equitable workforce going forwards.
