Global Gender Gap Report 2023

The overall gender parity score improved from 68.1 per cent in 2022 to 68.4 per cent in 2023. However, no country has yet achieved full gender parity, the report notes. It ranks 146 countries on a scale of 0 to 1 with one being the highest score.

In this 2023 edition, the countries with the highest rates of gender parity are Iceland (0.912), Norway (0.879), Finland (0.863), New Zealand (0.856) and Sweden (0.815). The countries ranked lowest on the index in 2023 are: Afghanistan (0.405), Chad (0.570), Algeria (0.573), Iran (0.575) and Pakistan (0.575).

India is ranked 127th out of 146 countries with a score of 0.643. In the 2022 report, it was ranked 135th with a score of 0.629.

India ranked 142nd (fifth lowest) on the subindex of ‘economic participation and opportunity’ with a score of (0.367). As per the report, it has almost perfect scores in ‘educational attainment’ and is ranked 26th of 146 countries. The country is ranked 142 on the subindex of ‘health and survival’ with a score of (0.950) and 59 in ‘political empowerment’ with a low score of 0.253.

In the ‘economic participation and opportunity’ dimension, the gender gap stands 60.1 per cent closed. The countries scoring highest in this subindex are Liberia (0.895), Jamaica (0.894) and Moldova (0.863). Conversely, Afghanistan (0.188), Algeria (0.317) and Iran (0.344) are the lowest scorers.

Gender parity in the dimension of ‘educational attainment’ reached 95.2 per cent. As many as 25 countries (Argentina, Botswana and Malaysia among others) attained the first rank with full gender parity. The countries ranked lowest are: Afghanistan (0.482), Chad (0.537) and Democratic Republic of Congo (0.683).

The ‘health and survival’ dimension showed gender parity reaching 96 per cent. A total of 26 countries share the first place in this subindex with a score of 0.98. These include Guatemala, Sri Lanka and Uganda among others. On the other hand, the countries with lowest scores are Azerbaijan (0.936), China (0.937) and Vietnam (0.945).

Gender parity remained low in ‘political empowerment’ at just 22.1 per cent. According to the report, Iceland – scoring 0.901 – is the only country which has closed 90 per cent of the gender gap. It is followed by Norway (0.765) and New Zealand (0.725). The lowest-ranked countries in this subindex are Afghanistan (scoring 0), Vanuatu (0.005) and Lebanon (0.021).

Overall gender parity levels are recorded to be highest in Europe (76.3 per cent) and North America (75 per cent). The regions following these are Latin America and the Caribbean (74.3 per cent), Eurasia and Central Asia (69 per cent), and East Asia and the Pacific (68.8 per cent). According to the report, the regions furthest from achieving parity are Sub-Saharan Africa (68.2 per cent), Southern Asia (63.4 per cent) and Middle East and North Africa (62.6 per cent).

Between 2022 and 2023, the score in Southern Asia rose by 1.1 percentage points. At the present rate of change, it will take 149 years to reach full parity in the region.

The country rankings within Southern Asia are as follows: Bangladesh (0.722), Bhutan (0.682), Sri Lanka (0.663), Nepal (0.659), Maldives (0.649), India (0.643), Pakistan (0.575), Iran (0.575) and Afghanistan (0.405).

The report states that fewer women are participating in the labour market and few out of those have employment. Women face more difficulties in searching for jobs and have a larger job gap rate (percentage of working-age individuals who want employment but are unemployed) as compared to men – 15 per cent and 10.5 per cent respectively.

Data from LinkedIn showed that women’s employment in non-STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) occupations was around 49.3 per cent. However, women workers in STEM accounted for just 29.2 per cent of all STEM workers.

Focus and Factoids by Yaajushi Hulgundi.

PARI Library’s health archive project is part of an initiative supported by the Azim Premji University to develop a free-access repository of health-related reports relevant to rural India.