Are womens rights still below mens in any capacity?
Executive summary
Yes—women’s rights and outcomes remain measurably below men’s in multiple important capacities worldwide: global indices show persistent economic and political gaps even as educational and many health gaps narrow, and the current pace of change means full parity is decades away [1] [2]. Progress is uneven: a handful of high‑scoring countries approach parity while many regions—especially parts of the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia—still record large shortfalls and slow projected convergence [3] [1].
1. The headline: how unequal are we, by the numbers
The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap framework reports the world has closed roughly 68.8% of the measured gender gap and estimates more than a century at current rates before full parity—123 years in the WEF’s 2025 analysis—showing that measurable gaps remain substantial and persistent [1] [2]. WorldPopulationReview and Statista reiterate that countries vary widely, with Iceland at the top scoring around the high 0.9 range while low‑ranked countries in conflict zones show dramatically worse outcomes for women [3] [4].
2. Economic gaps: pay, participation and leadership
Earnings and labour outcomes are where the largest and most stubborn deficits persist: global median figures show women earning roughly 83 cents on the dollar compared with men—an estimated 17% gap reported in labour statistics—and some OECD countries still report gaps exceeding 30% (South Korea cited at 31.2%) [5]. The WEF and its benchmarking work also flag economic participation and opportunity as a major drag on overall parity—wage equality, labour‑force participation and leadership representation lag far behind educational gains [6] [1].
3. Political power: representation and decision‑making
Political empowerment remains a clear structural deficit: the Global Gender Gap’s political subindex is among the weakest, and many countries show low shares of women in elected office and ministerial roles, which in turn slows progress on laws and budgets that affect women directly [2] [1]. Even where cabinets or parliaments make headline gains—such as the UK’s 2025 rise driven by a gender‑balanced cabinet—those remain exceptions rather than the rule and political parity is projected to take much longer than educational parity [6] [1].
4. Where women have caught up: education and many health outcomes
The data are not uniformly bleak: educational attainment and many facets of health and survival are close to parity globally, and in several economies women now outperform men in schooling metrics—evidence that structural gaps are not immutable and can change across generations [1] [7]. Still, near‑parity in enrollment and basic health does not eliminate disadvantages experienced in economic reward, political voice, safety from violence, or access to resources and decision‑making [1] [8].
5. Measurement matters—what indices capture and what they miss
Indices like the WEF’s Global Gender Gap and UNDP’s Gender Inequality Index provide comparative snapshots and expose gaps in outcomes [2] [9], but they measure relative gaps between women and men rather than absolute levels of wellbeing and can miss context‑specific harms or gains—an acknowledged limitation of the GGI that scholars have critiqued [10]. UN Women also warns that data gaps and budget cuts in national statistics undermine tracking: only around half of the needed gender data are consistently available, hampering targeted policy responses [8].
6. Geography and politics of the lagging places
Regional variation is stark: Europe and Nordic countries score highest on parity measures while the Middle East, North Africa and parts of South Asia register the largest gaps and the slowest projected improvement, driven by legal, cultural and conflict‑related barriers as reported across multiple datasets [3] [1]. International agencies argue that under‑resourcing, weak gender institutions and policy backsliding in some states are implicit drivers of backsliding or stagnation [8] [7].
7. Bottom line: rights versus outcomes and the road ahead
Legally codified rights have expanded in many places, and girls’ schooling and basic health outcomes have improved—yet across economic opportunity, pay, leadership and political voice women still trail men in measurable, structural ways; the best global estimates put full parity more than a century away if current trends continue [5] [1]. Policymakers, funders and civil society face a clear choice highlighted by UN Women: invest strategically now in data, economic inclusion, safety and political empowerment or accept the economic and social costs of long‑run inequality [8].