Context
Recently, the World Economic Forum (WEF) released its 19th version of Global Gender Gap Report 2025.
Key Highlights
- Overall Gender Parity: The world has closed 68.5% of the gender hole, a marginal improvement from the preceding year.
- Top Performers: Iceland stays the most gender-equal country for the 16th consecutive year, attaining over 90% parity.
- Other top-ranking countries encompass 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 barely 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 start 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 an endured decline from the 2019 peak of 30%.
Regional Insights
- South Asia: India ranks below Bangladesh (24), Nepal (125), and Sri Lanka (130), however 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 tempo, it’s going to take 123 years to end the global gender gap, highlighting the need for multiplied efforts.
- Economic Disparities: Despite development, women nevertheless earn extensively much less than men, with income gaps persisting across industries.
- Regional Inequalities: Certain areas, mainly South Asia and the Middle East, hold to lag behind in gender parity, going through structural and cultural limitations.
Source: The Hindu
Mains PYQ
Q. Discuss the desirability of greater representation to women in the higher judiciary to ensure diversity, equity and inclusiveness. (2021)
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