We are 134 years from closing the global gender gap, according to the World Economic Forum’s latest Gender Equality Index, marking a rise from the 131 year wait time the WEF found in its 2023 report.
Sharing these “wait times” is a good way to summarise the WEF’s key findings in its annual analysis of 146 countries.
But the fact the timelines have been getting longer at different points over the past few years indicates just how tenuous any progress on gender equality actually is.
Australia has had some progress when it comes to the country Index, up two places since the 2023 edition to now being ranked 24th in the world in 2024 for gender equality out of 146 countries. Australia is behind New Zealand in fourth spot as well as the UK in 14th, and one spot ahead of Albania. The United States continues to be ranked 43rd.
Australia falls well behind on the Economic Participation and Opportunity sub-index, ranked 42, up from the 38th spot in 2023.
Australia’s ranking on educational attainment is also behind, now ranked 84th of the 146 countries, compared to 78 in 2023 and at equal first during much earlier editions of the Index. On education, Australia appears to lose points based on secondary education completion rates, with more positive results coming via the equal first rankings on literacy rates, enrolment in primary education and also in terms of enrolment in tertiary education.
Australia is ranked 88th on health and survival down from 89th last year.
Where Australia does do well is on political empowerment, ranked 28th with a one spot lift from 29th in 2023. We score a more impressive 17th for women in ministerial positions and 33rd for women in parliament.
While the WEF shares some hope ahead for global gender equality in terms of political representation —noting that this is a bumper election year worldwide—the election results we’ve seen so far in 2024 do not point to a general trend of more women getting elected, outside of a bright spot in Mexico, which just elected its first female president.
The WEF also highlights the opportunity that could come to improve economic participation, given the massive structural changes occurring in labour markets, especially in tech. But again, significant changes aren’t being seen here as yet.
In a briefing on the findings earlier this morning, Saadia Zahidi (pictured above), the managing director of the World Economic Forum, noted the slowdown in progress, as well as the dent the pandemic made in previous progress achieved.
No country has yet achieved full gender parity. But 97 per cent of economics included in the 2024 edition have closed more than 60 per cent of their gaps — up from 85 per cent in 2006.
Iceland again takes the first spot on the gender equality rankings, having led the index now for a decade and a half. It’s the only country to have closed more than 90 per cent of its gender gap.
European countries continue to occupy most of the top spots on the Index, with Finland in second place, Norway in third, and Sweden in fifth.
New Zeland continues to retain the fourth spot on the Index, the leading Pacific country. Overall, Eastern Asia and the Pacific rank fourth on the regional Index, behind Europe, North America and Latin America and the Caribbean.
As for what will help? The WEF points to global elections in terms of growing the share of women’s representation worldwide, followed by professional networks to support gender parity in the workforce, as well as equitable care systems.
However, the WEF also highlights some risks ahead, especially when it comes to skills of the future.
While women’s representation in STEM has increased since 2016, according to LinkedIn data, women still make up just 28.2 per cent of the STEM workforce worldwide, compared to the 47.3 per cent of the non STEM workforce. There is also a considerable “drop to the top” occurring from entry-level to C-Suite position, which is found to be more pronounced in STEM related fields than non STEM fields.
Meanwhile, the WEF has highlighted a positive in AI, where the concentration of female talent in AI engineering has more than doubled since 2016.
The top 25 countries on The Global Gender Gap Index 2024
- Iceland
- Finland
- Norway
- New Zealand
- Sweden
- Nicaragua
- Germany
- Namibia
- Ireland
- Spain
- Lithuania
- Belgium
- Moldova
- United Kingdom
- Denmark
- Ecuador
- Portugal
- South Africa
- Costa Rica
- Switzerland
- Chile
- France
- Albania
- Australia
- Philipines
The bottom ten countries on the Index include:
- Sudan (in the 146th spot)
- Pakistan
- Chad
- Iran (Islamic Republic of)
- Guinea
- Mali
- Democratic Republic of Congo
- Algeria
- Niger
- Morocco