June 13, 2024
QUEZON CITY – There is only “very little progress” toward achieving gender parity, the latest World Economic Forum (WEF) report reveals.
The Global Gender Gap is at 68.5 percent closed, with the gap narrowing only by a meagre 0.1 percentage point since 2023 considering the 101 countries continuously covered since 2006, according to the report. Overall, the gender gap is getting smaller, but given the current collective pace, it will take 134 years or five generations to reach full parity in 2158.
In all, the report this year covered 146 economies, with Guyana making a return, while Sudan and Uzbekistan are included for the very first time.
“Despite some bright spots, the slow and incremental gains highlighted in this year’s Global Gender Gap Report underscore the urgent need for a renewed global commitment to achieving gender parity, particularly in economic and political spheres,” said Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director, World Economic Forum.
“We cannot wait until 2158 for parity. The time for decisive action is now,” she added.
Philippines has the narrowest gender gap in Asia
The research is divided into eight regions with Eastern Asia and the Pacific ranking fourth, garnering an overall gender parity score of 69.2 percent. While there has been an improvement of +3.1 percentage points overall since the report’s inception in 2006, only New Zealand and the Philippines have made the global top 10 since then.
For this year’s edition, New Zealand placed fourth—the highest performing country outside of Europe—while the Philippines occupied the 25th spot, the highest among Southeast Asian countries and Asia as a whole.
On a regional level, Eastern Asia and the Pacific ranks 4th, followed by Central Asia at 6th, and Southern Asia at 7th. The Middle East, together with Northern Africa, finds itself at the tail end. SOURCE: WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
As regards Economic Participation and Opportunity, Eastern Asia and the Pacific registered 71.7 per cent, showing progress since 2023 but revealing significant disparities between countries in terms of labour-force participation rates and workforce representation.
The region’s Educational Attainment gender parity score stands at 95.1 per cent, reflecting gender gaps in literacy and enrolment levels.
Health and Survival, despite a slight improvement, ranked last, at 95 per cent, with some countries still lagging in healthy life expectancy and sex birth ratio parity. Political Empowerment has improved overall since 2006 (+3.4 percentage points), but its 2024 score of 14.5 percent positions it third from the bottom against other regions.
Meanwhile, things look bleaker in Southern Asia which takes the seventh spot. The region has a gender parity score of 63.7 percent and a modest +3.9 percentage-point improvement since 2006. Quite concerning is how six out of the seven economies in the region rank below the top 100, and only six in the region have closed two-thirds of their gender gap.
The region ranks last in Economic Participation and Opportunity with a gender parity score of 38.8 percent. This figure reflects low labour-force participation rates for women and significant gender disparities in leadership roles, the report states.
Meanwhile, Educational Attainment in the region registers 94.5 per cent, having progressed by +13.4 percentage points since 2006, but retains substantial gender gaps in literacy and education, notably in Pakistan and Nepal.
Health and Survival remains stable at 95.4 per cent, while Political Empowerment sees a slight 0.7-point decline from 2023 to 26 per cent, reflecting gender imbalances in ministerial and parliamentary representation across the region.
A closer look
Despite the Philippines doing well in the report, it’s worth noting that the archipelago once ranked as high as 5th in 2013 and 6th for three consecutive years during the first three iterations of the Global Gender Gap Report from 2006 to 2008.
This year, the country fell nine spots from 19th place in 2023, stemming from losses in economic parity and a reduction in the share of women ministers. Remarkably, the economy has achieved full parity across all Educational Attainment indicators, as per the report.
SOURCE: WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
Completing the top 10 in the Eastern Asia and the Pacific region after New Zealand (1st regional/4th globally), Australia (2nd/24th), and the Philippines (3rd/25th), are Singapore (4th/48th), Thailand (5th/65th), Vietnam (6th/72nd), Mongolia (7th/85th), Timor-Leste (8th/86th), Lao PDR (9th/89th), and South Korea (10th/94th).
Singapore moved up a notch from its 2023 49th ranking, while Thailand leapt nine ranks upward, Vietnam remained in the same spot, and South Korea moved up 11 notches from its 105th placement last year.
SOURCE: WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
Over in the Southern Asia region, all countries have scored lower than their Eastern Asia and Pacific counterparts. Bangladesh places the highest in the region but only ranks 99th globally. This year, Pakistan finds itself second to last at 145th place, just a spot higher than bottom-ranking Sudan.
Asian economies which have seen the biggest decrease in scores are Bangladesh (-3.3 percentage points), Lao PDR (-3.3 percentage points), and Bhutan (-3.1 percentage points). The same three countries have the most significant decline in ranking: Bangladesh (-40, ranked 99th), Lao PDR (-35, ranked 89th), and Bhutan (-21, ranked 124th).
Read More: Women in India earn US$ 0.48 for every US$ 1.20 that men earn: WEF
The bigger picture
Overall, Europe leads all regions, having closed 75 percent of its gap in 2024, with an overall improvement of +6.2 percentage points since 2006. The top five European economies – Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Germany – all rank in the global top 10.
While 21 out of the 40 economies in the region have closed over 75 per cent of their gender gap, the distance between the top and bottom rank shows broad intra-regional disparities. Iceland, the highest ranking, leads by a considerable 29 percentage points over Türkiye, which sits at the bottom in the region.
Placing last out of the eight regions is the Middle East and North Africa with a gender parity score of 61.7 percent. The result may seem dismal, but on the flipside, the region has seen an overall positive trajectory since 2006, advancing its gender gap score by +3.9 percentage points.
Where the four gender gaps currently stand
Of the four gender gaps measured, the Health and Survival gender gap is “the most closed” at 96 per cent, followed by the Educational Attainment gap (94.9 per cent), the Economic Participation and Opportunity gap (60.5 per cent), and the Political Empowerment gap (22.5 per cent).
Given these figures, it will take another 20 years to reach parity in Educational Attainment, 152 years to reach economic parity, and 169 years to close the Political Empowerment gap. Expected time to close the Health and Survival gender gap remains undefined, as per the report.
The two dimensions where the gap is largest are also those where progress is most significant. Indicators show economies pushing forward women’s representation in parliament and ministerial positions.
In the economic dimension, parity for professional and technical workers, as well as in labour force participation, also increased. However, there has been a decline in overall collective parity for legislators, senior officials, and managers.
This 2024 being the biggest election year in history with about 2 billion people heading to the polls could impact the Political Empowerment dimension which remains the largest of four gender gaps at only 22.5 percent closed.
SOURCE: WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
This year’s slew of elections, then, will not only determine ruling parties, but will also influence the “gender split of governments and legislatures,” according to the report.
Since the inception of the Global Gender Gap Report in 2006, the Political Empowerment gap has shown the most improvement, closing 8.3 percentage points across the 101 countries continuously covered by the index. Moreover, the report mentioned that the share of women in parliamentary positions shows an almost uninterrupted positive trajectory since 2006.
With this year seeing possible seismic shifts in countries’ top leadership positions, women’s political representation and the overall gender gap could see an improvement, the report stated.