Latest news with #WEFGlobalGenderGapIndex
Indian Express
12-06-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
WEF Gender Gap Index 2025: Top 10 best and worst countries for gender parity
WEF Global Gender Gap Index 2025: According to the WEF Global Gender Gap Report 2025, the global gender gap has marginally narrowed in 2025, from 68.4% in 2024 to 68.8% in 2025, in 148 economies that were surveyed. However, the overall pace still lags behind pre-pandemic trends. At the aggregate level, high-income economies have closed 74.3% of their gender gap, slightly higher than the averages recorded in lower-income groups; however, the best performers in the three lower-income categories have narrowed a larger percentage of their gender disparities than more than half of the high-income countries. Notably, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Ecuador, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia have shown to be the most effective economies in overcoming gender inequalities across each income level. The top 10 economies in the Global Gender Gap Index 2025 have succeeded in minimising gender gaps by at least 80%. Iceland retains the world's most gender-equal economy for the 16th consecutive year, closing 92.6% of the gender gap – the only economy to reach 90% parity. European countries account for eight of the top ten rankings; Iceland, Finland, Norway, and Sweden have all been in the top ten since 2006. Source: World Economic Forum – The Global Gender Gap Index 2025 Rankings The bottom 10 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index 2025—led by Pakistan, Sudan, Chad, and Iran—continue to show the widest gender disparities globally. Source: World Economic Forum – The Global Gender Gap Index 2025 Rankings In 2025, India ranked 131st in global gender parity out of 148 countries, with a score of 64.4%, down three positions from the previous year. While it's way behind its neighbours – Bhutan (119th), Nepal (125th) and Sri Lanka (130th) – it saw an improvement in economic participation and opportunity. The score rose to 40.7%, supported by an increase in estimated earned income from 28.6% to 29.9%, while labour-force participation remained steady at 45.9%. In educational attainment, India scored 97.1%, reflecting gains in female literacy and tertiary education enrolment. Health and survival also improved due to a better sex ratio at birth and increased healthy life expectancy. However, political empowerment declined, with women's representation in parliament dropping from 14.7% to 13.8%. Cherry Gupta is an Assistant Manager - Content at The Indian Express. She is responsible for crafting compelling narratives, uncovering the latest news and developments, and driving engaging content based on data and trends to boost website traffic and audience engagement. One can connect with her on LinkedIn or by mail at ... Read More
Korea Herald
06-03-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Gender equality created through education, mentoring, system reforms: Philippines envoy
Q. What challenges have you faced as a female Ambassador, and how have you overcome them? Do you believe female representation in diplomacy and politics has improved globally? As a woman and as a public servant, one of my regular activities is to read the findings of the annual WEF Global Gender Gap Index, the longest-running tracking index for closing the gender gap globally across critical areas of women's engagement and is very informative for the work that I do as a diplomat. Some of the statistics have been encouraging but the overall picture requires all stakeholders to exert more effort to close the gap which according to the 2024 report, will take 134 years to achieve parity or about 5 generations. A tall order for any country. The Philippines is one of the best performers in the Asia-Pacific (3rd after New Zealand and Australia) and has been in the top 10, 20, and 25 globally in the past in closing the gender gap. But there have been years where our ranking has gone down principally in the field of women's representation in politics. There are fewer women in ministerial-level positions and fewer women being elected to public office. There is a need, therefore, to improve on this and to address the factors which are pushing women away from politics. In 2024 an unprecedented number of elections took place globally and in some countries, women had lower engagements as candidates so this needs to be addressed through education, mentoring, and reforms of systems that do not encourage women's participation. In diplomacy, however, the Philippines has the highest women to men ratio in Chiefs of Mission positions with 51 percent of women reaching the highest diplomatic rank compared to 49 percent for men. That being said, as a woman diplomat I continue to face challenges. There have been many times, for example, where I have been the only woman in the room during important meetings. However, I learned through the years that a surefire way to overcome this is to prepare well, to study hard, and to know all the issues on the agenda. I have found that if you know what you are talking about, people will listen and respect your contributions. Q. What policies or social campaigns have been promoted in your country to improve women's rights and leadership? The Philippines is acknowledged as among the top countries in the Asia-Pacific Region with strong gender and development policies such as the passage of a Magna Carta for Women. One specific policy which has a far-reaching impact is that Gender and Development programs (GAD) are embedded under the law in every branch of government in the Philippines. There is a GAD component for all instrumentalities of government. Agencies and offices, including our Embassies, are required to allocate 5 percent of our total budgets to GAD programs. This serves to institutionalize GAD sensitivity, consciousness, and advocacy in the public sector and it has likewise been adopted to some degree in the private sector as well. For us at the Philippine Embassy in Seoul, it allows us to implement training, learning, mentoring, and other programs on gender and development both with our Korean and international partners and our overseas community. I always advise young women to study hard, prepare, be engaged and involved, to volunteer early on for advocacies they believe in for greater exposure and awareness on issues, and to interact with different stakeholders coming from diverse perspectives as this is an essential part of any work in international relations. There is no substitute for studying issues from various angles so that they can appreciate matters more wholistically and can find responsive solutions for all. As women in the field of international relations it is important to build on the special strengths of women -- an attention to detail and empathy for those affected by their work. Q. There are growing concerns that AI gender bias reflects both technological limitations and deep-rooted societal prejudices. Despite economic and technological advancements, what measures do you believe are necessary to bridge the gender gap both online and offline? The statistics in terms of the growing AI gender bias and gender gap is quite alarming. In terms of representation alone only 22 percent of the global talent pool in AI is composed of women and of this number, less than 14 percent, are in positions of seniority or at a decision-making level which would have an impact on how AI can bridge the gender gap or how it can perpetuate stereotypes in this new technological field. As with other sectors there is a need to address this disparity by working on the following critical matters, namely, ensuring greater access to technology for all regardless of gender and it must start early on in the home, in education, in the workplace; mentoring and positive representation of women and girls online, in tech, and offline; and to ensure that various institutions allow for the entry of women in the AI space at all levels so they have a say in gender representation online and offline.
