It will take the world 132 years to bridge all gender gaps and achieve full gender parity.
This is according to the latest 2022 Global Gender Gap Index by the World Economic Forum (WEC).
WEC benchmarked 146 countries across the world, measuring the current state of gender parity by Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment.
“In 2022, the global gender gap has been closed by 68.1 per cent. At the current rate of progress, it will take 132 years to reach full parity,” it found.
WEC said that scores can be interpreted as the progress made towards parity, that is, the percentage of the gender gap that has been closed.
This percentage, they said, represents a slight four-year improvement compared to the 2021 estimate which predicted 136 years to global parity.
However, trends leading up to 2020 had predicted that the gender gap would be closed within 100 years highlighting an alarming increase in recent decades.
This increase in expected time can be attributed to the generational loss that occurred between 2020 and 2021 according to the WEC.
Across the 146 countries covered by the 2022 index, the Health and Survival gender gap has closed by 95.8 per cent, Educational Attainment by 94.4 per cent, Economic Participation and Opportunity by 60.3 per cent, and Political Empowerment by 22 per cent.
“Although no country has yet achieved full gender parity, the top 10 economies have closed at least 80 per cent of their gender gaps,” they reported.
Iceland leads the world at 90.8 per cent, making it the only economy to have closed more than 90 per cent of its gender gap.
“Sub-Saharan African countries Rwanda and Namibia, top the African continent at 81.1 per cent and 80.7 per cent respectively placing 6th and 8th place globally,” they found.
This has made the region register its highest gender gap score in 16 years.
“At the present rate it would take 98 years to close the gender gap in the region,” they said.
WEC said that gender gaps in the workforce had been closing steadily over the years but the trend was disrupted in 2020 when parity improvement scores decreased due to the pandemic.
“As a result, in 2022, gender parity in the labour force stands at 62.9 per cent, the lowest level registered since the index was first compiled,” they said.
Among workers who remained in the labour force, WEC explained, unemployment rates increased and have remained consistently higher for women.
It was found that men's share of time spent in unpaid work compared to that spent in paid work was 19 per cent.
“Women’s time spent in unpaid work compared to paid was 55 per cent. With rising childcare costs, there is a high risk that an asymmetric demand to provide unpaid care work will continue to be imposed on women and that is an emerging crisis,” they cautioned.
