Global Gender Gap Report: Women's hard-won gains 'fragile'
Two decades of progress toward gender parity is at risk as women's political representation declines, according to a new World Economic Forum report. At the current pace, the remaining gap could take 120 years to close.
The 2026 Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum indicates that while global gender parity stands at 69.2%, progress may take 120 years to reach full equality. Women now lead in senior positions in government and business, yet this trend reversed in politics over the past decade. WEF Managing Director Saadia Zahidi emphasized that full parity is not inevitable and requires faster implementation of proven policies.
Women remain underrepresented in high-ranking roles, with less than 20% in CEO positions and only one in ten ministerial roles considered high influence. Despite significant investment in AI, women comprise less than 20% of AI engineers across all levels. Iceland leads the ranking, followed by Nordic nations, while the US fell to 47th due to declining representation of women in senior management and politics.
India, with 64.5% gender parity closed, saw modest improvements in education and professional roles but remained stagnant in political representation. China advanced seven places to 96th, with strong economic parity but limited political advancement. Sub-Saharan Africa saw notable gains, with Namibia leading at 84.5% parity and several countries like Kenya, Ghana, and Angola making significant strides.
Written by urgent.news from DW Business's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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