Gender equality takes another 123 years – AI an opportunity

Author Moonshot.news

Published on: 12/06/2025

Global gender equality will take another 123 years. The global gender gap has since last year closed by 0.3-0.4 percentage points. In the technology, information and media industry, men are more highly represented at every career stage, especially in the STEM C-suite, World Economic Forum’s annual gender gap report shows. It says that in tech, information and media, the dynamism of AI transformation offers an opportunity to break with longstanding gender disparities. 

“LinkedIn data shows female AI talent on the platform has expanded significantly between 2018 and 2025, and the gender gap in AI talent has narrowed in 74 of 75 economies. Ensuring women are not left out of these emerging sectors is key to building resilient, future-ready economies.”

The index shows that no economy has yet achieved full gender parity. Iceland (92.6%) continues to lead holding the top position for 16 consecutive years, and remains the only economy to have closed more than 90% of its gender gap since 2022.

Each of the top 10 ranked economies have closed at least 80% of their gender gaps, the only economies to do so. European economies dominate the top 10, occupying eight of the spots. Among them, Iceland (92.6%, 1st), Finland (87.9%, 2nd), Norway (86.3%, 3rd), and Sweden (81.7%, 6th), have consistently ranked in the top 10 in every edition since 2006. 

Compared to the 2024 edition, the United Kingdom (83.8%, 4th) and the Republic of Moldova (81.3%, 7th) moved up in the rankings from last year to join the top 10. 

Germany (80.3%, 9th) and Ireland (80.1%, 10th) are also among the top 10 this year, marking their 7th and 18th appearances, respectively. New Zealand (82.7%, 5th) and Namibia (81.1%, 8th) have held the two remaining spots in the top 10 since 2021.

Among the 148 economies, Health and Survival gender gap has closed by 96.2%, Educational Attainment gap by 95.1%, Economic Participation and Opportunity gap by 61.0%, and Political Empowerment gap by 22.9%.

WEF says that across the 19 editions of the index, Political Empowerment has seen by far the most improvement, with the gap narrowing by 9.0 percentage points — from 14.3% in 2006 to 23.4 % in 2025 — among the 100 economies continuously included in every edition. 

“At the same time, at the current pace it will still take 162 years to fully close this gap. Similarly, the Economic Participation and Opportunity gap has narrowed by +5.6 percentage points over the same period, from 55.1% in 2006 to 60.7% in 2025, with full parity projected to take another 135 years if current trends persist.”

Key findings:

• Northern America leads the 2025 regional gender gap rankings, having closed 75.8% of its overall gender gap. With an economic parity score of 76.1%, the region also ranks first in Economic Participation and Opportunity; however since 2006, Northern America has only increased economic parity by +0.6 percentage points. Mixed results across indicators have limited the extent of advances in economic parity made over time. The region maintains a full parity score in Educational Attainment. In fact, female enrolment rates in tertiary education now far surpass those of men (by around 30 percentage points). 
• Since 2006, Northern America has made the most progress in the Political Empowerment subindex, where it places third in 2025, with a score of 29.7%, narrowing its political parity gap by 19.3 percentage points. A substantive increase in ministerial parity (+50.4 percentage points) has largely contributed to this result.
• Europe follows in the ranking in second place, with three-quarters of the regional gender gap closed (75.1%), despite the performance being somewhat uneven across the 40 economies in the block. Over time, Europe has narrowed its overall gap by 6.3 percentage points and its economic gap by 8.6 points since 2006. Despite having the fourth-highest score (68.4%) among the eight regions in Economic Participation and Opportunity, more than one-third (37.5%) of European economies have closed three quarters of their economic gap. 

• Over time, Europe has reduced gender disparity in overall workforce representation by 7.8 percentage points. Ranking third in Educational Attainment with a score of 99.6%, about one third of the block (35%) has attained full educational parity, with the remaining economies standing within 5 percentage points of achieving it. In Health and Survival, Europe sees, like many regions, a decrease in healthy life expectancy affecting its subindex scores. 
• Europe posts the highest regional score in Political Empowerment (35.4%). Out of all regions, Europe has the third- and second-highest scores for ministerial and parliamentary parity in 2025, at 55.3% and 53.3%, respectively.
• Ranking third is Latin America and the Caribbean, with a score of 74.5%. The region continues to have the fastest rate of progress, having advanced 8.6 percentage points since 2006. Despite achieving the third-lowest score globally in Economic Participation and Opportunity (65.6%), every economy in the region has closed at least 50% of its economic gap. The region advances in close step, with less than 8.4 percentage points separating the top and bottom performers in this subindex. 
• In 2025, Latin America and the Caribbean has closed, on average, 65.0% of its gender gap in senior economic leadership positions. The region records the third-highest score in Educational Attainment (99.6%), with 10 of the 23 economies having reached full educational parity, and the remaining 13 within 3 percentage points of doing so. Latin America and the Caribbean ranks second globally (35.0%) in Political Empowerment and boasts a strong record of female political leadership: 15 economies have had a woman as head of state in the past five decades. In 17 economies, women make up at least one-third of the cabinet, and all economies include women in parliament – with Nicaragua and Mexico posting full parliamentary parity.
• Central Asia places fourth in the global ranking, posting a gender parity score of 69.8% in 2025. Of the seven economies that make up the Central Asia group, four are listed in the top 100, but only Armenia (59th) and Georgia (63rd) register scores above 70% (73.1% and 72.9%, respectively). The region is moving in relative unison towards parity – only 8 percentage points separate Armenia (59th, 73.1%) from Tajikistan (129th, 64.6%). Central Asia is among the three top-scoring regions for Economic Participation and Opportunity (71.2%), Educational Attainment (99.3%) and Health and Survival (97.3%), yet has the second lowest score for Political Empowerment out of all regions at 11.6%. Despite a 1 percentage-point overall loss in labour-force participation parity score since 2006, Central Asia has made significant gains in economic representation, increasing its parity score in senior officials, managers and legislators by +0.2 percentage points. Of the seven economies in the region, however, only Georgia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have closed more than 70% of the Economic Participation and Opportunity gap, with scores of 72.4%, 71.5% and 74.8%, respectively. Since 2006, the region’s gender parity score in Educational Attainment has receded by -0.3 percentage points. Six economies in the region are pushing towards educational parity with scores over 98%, and only Tajikistan trails behind (93.9%). 

• Despite having the second-lowest regional score in Political Empowerment, Central Asia has leaped forward with an 8.2 percentage-point increase in its ministerial representation score and a 10 percentage-point improvement in parliamentary parity. Armenia, Georgia and Uzbekistan lead the region on this subindex, with scores over 20%.
• In 5th place with a 69.4% parity score is Eastern Asia and the Pacific. About half (52.6%) of the regional block ranks in the top 100, but only New Zealand (5th, 82.7%) features in the top 10. The region has the second-highest regional score for Economic Participation and Opportunity at 71.6% and a relatively high score concentration within the 70-80% range. Only one economy, Fiji (126th, 64.7%) has closed less than two-thirds of the economic gap (58.8%). In 2025, 17 of 19 economies in the region have a female labou rforce participation rate of over 40%, the highest of which is recorded in Cambodia. Eastern Asia and the Pacific, however, places third-to-last in Educational Attainment, with 95.3%. Parity in primary education enrolment in the region has declined over time by –2.2 percentage points. In 2025, Laos PDR, Philippines and Papua New Guinea still have female primary education enrolment rates under 90%. Across regions, Eastern Asia and the Pacific places the lowest in Health and Survival with a score of 95.5%.
• 15 of the economies in Western Asia and the Pacific have achieved over 96% in health parity in 2025, a metric impacted by lower levels of sex ratio at birth parity in Viet Nam, China, Brunei Darussalam and Papua New Guinea. Eastern Asia and the Pacific also ranks sixth in Political Empowerment, having achieved 15.3% of political parity. Despite narrowing the political gap by 4.1 percentage points since the index launched in 2006, the region advances slowly and unevenly. In 2025, only New Zealand (60.4%) has passed the 50% marker for political parity, while Japan, Cambodia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu trail behind, with scores under 10%. Nine of the 19 economies have had no female head of state.

• Sub-Saharan Africa ranks sixth globally, having achieved a gender parity score of 68.0%. Comprising 36 economies, the region displays a wide range of parity outcomes. The highest ranked economy, Namibia (81.1%), places 8th globally while Chad ranks 146th with a score of 57.1%. Coming fifth in Economic Participation and Opportunity, Sub-Saharan Africa scores 67.5%, marking a 4.8 percentage-point improvement since 2006. Chad records the index’s lowest economic score (44.4%), while Botswana leads the global ranking (87.3%). Representation of women in senior economic leadership varies widely, with parity scores ranging from 13.2% in Chad to full parity in eight economies in the region. Sub-Saharan Africa ranks eighth in Educational Attainment with a score of 85.6%, up 5.2 percentage points since 2006. This improvement is largely driven by gains in educational enrolment parity. In line with other regions, women surpass men in tertiary enrolment rates. 
• In Political Empowerment, Sub-Saharan Africa ranks fifth, with a score of 22.2%. At the launch of the index, the region scored zero for years with female head of state; yet in 2025, this indicator has reached 3.2%. Women now hold 40.2% of ministerial roles and 37.7% of parliamentary seats, although Rwanda is the only economy in the region to achieve full parliamentary parity.
• In 2025, Southern Asia ranks 7th, with a gender parity score of 64.6%. Of the seven economies that make up the regional block, only Bangladesh (24th, 77.5%) places in the top 50. In Economic Participation and Opportunity, the region scores 40.6%. Over time, Southern Asia has increased its parity score for economic representation for senior workers (+9.1 percentage points) and for professional and technical workers (+17.2 percentage points). However, the parity score in estimated earned income has dropped by -7.8 percentage points. In Educational Attainment, Southern Asia ranks sixth at 95.4%. Economies show high levels of variance in literacy parity: in Nepal and Pakistan, the literacy parity score is below 75.0%, while full parity is observed in the Maldives. The Health and Survival score of Southern Asia is 95.5%. Over time, sparse advances in healthy life expectancy (+0.9 percentage points) are countered by parity losses in sex ratio at birth (-1 percentage point). 
• In Political Empowerment, Southern Asia places fourth with a score of 26.8%. In 2006, the region had the highest baseline (2006) score of all regions, at 21.9%. Since then, it has advanced political parity by 4.9 percentage points – and has been since outstripped by other regions. Of the seven economies in the block, only Bangladesh has achieved political parity at the head-of-state level. At the parliamentary level, Bhutan and Maldives are the only two economies with parity scores under 5%.
• In 8th place ranks Middle East and Northern Africa with a regional gender parity score of 61.7%. Despite being the lowest ranked, its trajectory signals gradual improvement. At 42.4%, advances in Economic Participation and Opportunity score are challenged by a high level of dispersion: top performers like Israel (73.0%) and Bahrain (65.6%) more than double the scores of Sudan (31.3%) and Iran (Islamic Republic of) (34.9%). Yet bright spots shine through – Jordan reports over 50% female representation among senior officials and managers, and women make up a majority of professional and technical workers in Israel and Lebanon. The region ranks fifth globally in Educational Attainment (97.6%), having gained +5.4 percentage points since 2006. Most economies are nearing full parity in Educational Attainment, but disparities remain between economies; in particular, literacy and enrolment rates can differ significantly among them. In Health and Survival, the region places sixth with a score of 96.2%. The region continues to trail in Political Empowerment, with the lowest global score of 10.5%. Still, the regional average has more than tripled since 2006, gaining 8.3 percentage points. The United Arab Emirates leads with a political parity score of 37.2%, ranking 32nd globally.