India dropped two ranks on WEF Gender Gap Index; Iceland tops the list
India, with a score of 0.641, ranks 129th, dropping two places from 2023. The index also includes Bangladesh at 99th, Nepal at 117th, and Sri Lanka at 122nd among India’s neighboring countries.
The most recent Global Gender Gap Report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) highlights the continuous journey towards gender equality. The report, released on June 12, 2024, provides a detailed analysis of global advancements and areas that need immediate intervention.
The report indicates a marginal enhancement in the overall gender gap, which has narrowed by 0.7% compared to the previous year. As of 2024, the global gender gap is 68.5% across the 146 countries surveyed this year. It is projected that it will take until 2158 — 134 years from now — to reach complete parity at the current pace.
The report emphasizes that the progress in achieving gender equality has been minimal compared to the previous year. This conclusion is drawn after evaluating four key areas — economic opportunities, health, education, and political leadership.
India, with a score of 0.641, ranks 129th, dropping two places from 2023. The index also includes Bangladesh at 99th, Nepal at 117th, and Sri Lanka at 122nd among India’s neighboring countries. Pakistan, with a score of 0.570, ranks 145th, just above Sudan (0.568), a newcomer to the index.
Europe is home to the top 10 nations with the highest gender equality, with Iceland leading the pack with a score of 0.935. The other countries in the top 10 are Finland (0.875), Norway (0.875), New Zealand (0.835), Sweden (0.816), Nicaragua (0.811), Germany (0.810), Namibia (0.805), Ireland (0.802), and Spain (0.797).
India’s Performance
India, with its population of over 1.4 billion, has experienced a slight setback in its efforts to close the gender gap in 2024, according to the latest Global Gender Gap Report from the WEF. The country now ranks 129th out of the 146 countries, having closed 64.1% of its gender gap, a minor decrease from the previous year, resulting in a drop of two ranks.
The decline in India’s ranking is primarily due to reductions in educational attainment and political empowerment. While progress has been made in educational attainment, parity levels have decreased. Despite high enrollment rates for women in primary, secondary, and tertiary education, the increase has been modest. The literacy gap between men and women remains significant at 17.2 percentage points, placing India 124th on this indicator.
Despite the overall decline, the WEF report notes that India’s economic parity score has shown a consistent upward trend over the past four years. The country has made small gains in economic participation and opportunity but still falls short by 6.2 percentage points compared to its 2012 score of 46%. Key areas requiring improvement include closing gender gaps in estimated earned income, legislative roles, senior management positions, labor force participation, and professional and technical jobs.
In political empowerment, India’s performance is mixed. While it ranks in the top 10 globally for the head-of-state indicator with a 40.7% score, representation at the federal level remains low. Women hold only 6.9% of ministerial positions and 17.2% of parliamentary seats, indicating a need for more robust measures to enhance female political participation.
Dimensions of Gender Parity
In terms of the four dimensions of gender parity measured across the 146 countries, Health and Survival has the smallest gap, with 96% closed. However, disparities in life expectancy and access to healthcare services persist in some regions, primarily due to cultural and economic factors.
Educational Attainment has made significant strides, closing 94.9% of the gap. Many countries have nearly achieved gender equality in primary and secondary education. However, the gap widens at the tertiary level, where women are underrepresented in STEM fields, limiting their future opportunities in high-demand, high-paying careers.
Economic participation remains a significant challenge, with only 60.5% of the gender gap closed. Women worldwide continue to face substantial barriers in entering and advancing in the workforce, particularly in leadership roles and high-growth sectors like technology and engineering. The wage gap also persists, influenced by factors such as unpaid care work, which disproportionately falls on women, and a lack of representation in high-paying industries.
Political empowerment is the area with the largest gender gap, with only 22.5% closed. Women continue to be significantly underrepresented in political leadership positions. However, the WEF Gender Gap Report 2024 notes that the Political Empowerment gap has shown the most improvement over the 18 editions, and that the share of women in parliamentary positions has shown “an almost uninterrupted positive trajectory” since 2006.
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