Global Gender Gap Report 2024

About Global Gender Gap Report:

• It is an annual index designed to measure gender equality.
• It benchmarks gender-based gaps in four areas: economic participation and opportunity; educational attainment; health and survival; and political empowerment.
• It is released by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
• It is the longest-standing index tracking the progress of numerous countries’ efforts towards closing these gaps over time since its inception in 2006.
• Highlights of 2024 Report:
  • The global gender gap score in 2024 for all 146 countries stands at 68.5%, a 0.1 percentage point improvement on last year.
  • At the current pace, it will take another 134 years to achieve full gender parity.
  • India slipped two places to 129th place as Iceland retained its top position in the rankings for the 15th consecutive year.
  • It was followed in the top 10 by Finland, Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, Nicaragua, Germany, Namibia, Ireland, and Spain.
  • With a population of over 1.4 billion, India closed 64.1% of its gender gap in 2024.
  • In South Asia, India was ranked fifth after Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan, while Pakistan was ranked last.
  • In the world, Sudan was ranked last on the index of 146 countries, while Pakistan fell three places to 145th.
  • India was among the economies with the lowest levels of economic parity, with Bangladesh, Sudan, Iran, Pakistan, and Morocco, as all of them registered less than 30 percent gender parity in estimated earned income. 
  • India showed the best gender parity in terms of enrolment in secondary education and ranked 65th globally on political empowerment of women.
  • With regard to parity in number of years with female/male heads of state for the last 50 years, India ranked 10th.

Q1: What is the World Economic Forum (WEF)?

The WEF is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. It provides a global, impartial and not-for-profit platform for meaningful connection between stakeholders to establish trust, and build initiatives for cooperation and progress. It convenes an annual winter conference, traditionally in Davos, Switz., for the discussion of global commerce, economic development, political concerns, and important social issues. Some of the world’s most prominent business leaders, politicians, policy makers, scholars, philanthropists, trade unionists, and representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) attend the meetings.

Source: WEF Global Gender Gap Report 2024: Parity for Women remains five generations away