Benchmarking the current state and evolution of gender parity is key
With so much positive action for women worldwide, the World Economic Forum reminds that it will still take well over a century before women have the same career prospects as men and that no country in the world has closed its gender gap.
Tracking progress in closing gender gaps
Annually, the World Economic Forum provides an excellent and reputable source of insightful data through its Global Gender Gap Report.
The Global Gender Gap Index annually benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions (Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment). Importantly, the data highlights the progress of numerous economies’ efforts towards closing these gaps over time. It is the longest-standing index tracking the progress of numerous countries’ efforts towards closing these gaps over time since its inception in 2006.
Resourcing gender-equality efforts is crucial
"The scale and speed of progress are deeply insufficient to achieve gender equality by 2030. Resourcing gender-equality efforts is crucial to avoid the rollback of hard-earned progress, and to ensure that pathways to growth, prosperity, innovation, and sustainability are levelling the ground for all persons. Achieving gender equality demands government and business to shift both resources and mindsets towards a new paradigm of economic thinking, where gender parity is embraced as a condition for equitable and sustainable growth. Through collaborative efforts and targeted interventions between governments and business, we can make 50/50 a reality," says the World Economic Forum.
Decisive leadership and dedicated resources are needed
According to Managing Director at the World Economic Forum, Saadia Zahidi, "Globally, gender parity in economic and political spheres has improved significantly since the inception of the report, nearly doubling parity overall in senior leadership, ministerial, and parliamentary positions."
Parity can come within grasp, reinforces Saadia Zahidi, but it requires decisive leadership and dedicated resources.
It is key for groups to mobilize action, exchange insights, foster partnerships, and combine forces to accelerate economic gender parity and deliver economic transformation, innovation and growth.
Furthermore, investment and innovation are consistently required to advance equality of opportunity and forge a gender equal world.
More work to do
Gender inequality not only affects the lives of individual women and men, but inequality slows economic growth and hinders development.
There remains much work to be undertaken and considerable progress still to be made.
Everyone everywhere can play a part in forging gender equality and International Women's Day provides a key opportunity for important awareness raising activity, celebrating women's achievements, and rallying for ongoing positive change.