Recently, India has slipped two places on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Index to 129th place.
Global Gender Gap Index 2024
- This year, the 18th edition of the Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks gender parity across 146 economies, providing a basis for the analysis of gender parity developments across two-thirds of the world’s economies.
- As per WEF, at the current pace it would take another 134 years (equivalent to five generations) to achieve full gender parity.
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About the Global Gender Gap Index
- It annually benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity.
- It is the longest-standing index tracking the progress of numerous countries’ efforts towards closing these gaps over time since its inception in 2006.
- Published by: The World Economic Forum
Four Key Dimensions:-
- Economic Participation and Opportunity
- Educational Attainment
- Health and Survival
- Political Empowerment
- Score: The Global Gender Gap Index measures scores on a 0-100 scale and scores can be interpreted as the distance covered towards parity (i.e. the percentage of the gender gap that has been closed).
- Analysis: The index examines a subset of 101 countries that have been included in every edition of the index since 2006.
- Lower than Previous Year: Overall, India ranked 129 in this year’s index, scoring marginally lower than the previous edition.
- With a population of more than 140 crore, India has closed 64.1% of its gender gap in 2024 and the decline of two places from 127th last year.
- India’s Ranking in Categories:
- India had the best rank (65) in the ‘Political Empowerment’ parameter
- Economic Participation and Opportunity (142)
- Health and Survival (142)
- Educational Attainment (112)
- Reason for Rank Lowering: This slight regression is mainly the result of small declines in ‘Educational Attainment’ and ‘Political Empowerment’, while ‘Economic Participation and Opportunity’ slightly improved.
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Global Gender Gap Index 2024, Global Rankings
- Top Rankers: Iceland was followed by Finland, Norway, New Zealand and Sweden in the top five.
- The majority of the top 10 most gender-equal countries are in Europe, with Ireland and Spain re-entering the top 10 this year.
- The U.K. was ranked 14th, while the USA was at 43rd place.
- Bottom Rankers: Globally, Sudan was ranked last on the index of 146 countries, while Pakistan slipped three places to 145th.
- Remarkable Achievers: The region that made remarkable headway this year was Latin America and the Caribbean.
- The region recorded its highest economic parity score to date (65.7%) and the second-highest regional political empowerment score (34%)
India’s Ranking in Categories
- Political Empowerment: India scored within the top-10 on the head-of-state indicator, but its scores for women’s representation at the federal level, in Ministerial positions (6.9%) and in Parliament (17.2%), remain relatively low.
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- Political disparity is high in entire South Asia.
- With regard to parity in the number of years with female/male heads of state for the last 50 years, India was ranked 10th.
- Economic Participation and Opportunity: India figured among the economies with the lowest levels of economic parity, alongside Bangladesh, Sudan, Iran, Pakistan, and Morocco. All of them registered less than 30% gender parity in estimated earned income.
- India’s economic parity score has trended upwards for the past four years.
- Within South Asia, India was ranked fifth after Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan, while Pakistan was ranked last.
- Educational Attainment: India’s score in ‘Educational Attainment’ also contributed to a lower parity status compared to the previous assessment cycles.
- While the shares of women are high in primary, secondary and tertiary education enrolments, they have only been modestly increasing.
- The gap between men and women’s literacy rate is 17.2% points wide, leaving India ranked 124th on this indicator.
- India showed the best gender parity in terms of enrolment in secondary education, while it scored well on political empowerment of women at 65th rank globally.
About World Economic Forum
- Also known as the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.
- Established in 1971 as a not-for-profit foundation
- Founder: Klaus Schwab
- Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.
- It is independent, impartial and not tied to any special interests.
- The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.
- Other WEF Reports:
- The Future of Jobs Report
- Global Risks Report
- Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report
- Global Competitiveness Report
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Conclusion
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.
June 13, 2024