Nearly two decades since the World Economic Forum began benchmarking gender parity across the world, the finish line remains stubbornly distant. On average, the world has now bridged 68.8 per cent of the overall gender gap, up slightly from 68.4 per cent in 2024. This marks a modest global improvement of 0.3 percentage points, the highest level recorded since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, even with this progress, the world is still 123 years away from full gender parity at the current pace.
No country has yet achieved complete equality between men and women, though Iceland (92.6%) continues to lead the world, having closed more than 90 per cent of its gender gap for sixteen consecutive years. Other top performers such as Finland (87.9%), Norway (86.3%), the United Kingdom (83.8%), and New Zealand (82.7%) illustrate how sustained policy efforts can translate into measurable gender progress.
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At the aggregate level, high-income economies have closed 74.3 per cent of their gender gap, slightly higher than the averages observed in upper-middle-income economies (69.6%), lower-middle-income economies (66.0%), and low-income economies (66.4%). Interestingly, the top performers among lower-income economies have closed a greater share of their gender gaps than over half of the high-income group, underscoring that wealth alone is not the determinant of equality. The pathway to full gender parity varies across the four key dimensions of the WEF index: the Health and Survival gap has closed by 96.2 per cent, Educational Attainment by 95.1 per cent, Economic Participation and Opportunity by 61.0 per cent, and Political Empowerment by just 22.9 per cent.
The 2025 report reveals that the most significant progress has occurred within Economic Participation and Political Empowerment, though these two areas still have the largest remaining deficits. Over the past nineteen editions, the Political Empowerment gap has narrowed by 9.0 percentage points, from 14.3 per cent in 2006 to 23.4 per cent in 2025, yet at the current rate, it will take another 162 years to close. Similarly, the Economic Participation and Opportunity gap has improved by 5.6 percentage points, from 55.1 per cent in 2006 to 60.7 per cent in 2025, but full parity remains 135 years away if current trends persist.
Beyond moral imperatives, the World Economic Forum makes a compelling economic argument: gender inclusion is a growth multiplier. The 2025 report frames parity not merely as a social justice goal but as an economic transformation strategy. Economies that fully harness women’s talent and participation, the report emphasises, are better equipped to navigate “technological breakthroughs, geopolitical conflict, and economic uncertainty.”
The Forum’s Centre for the New Economy and Society continues to serve as a hub for this transformation, advancing frameworks like the Gender Parity Accelerators, which help governments and businesses build inclusive policies, and the Global Gender Parity Sprint, a five-year initiative designed to fast-track parity across economic and political spheres.
These frameworks align with Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) of the United Nations, which seeks to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls by 2030. Yet, the WEF findings show that without an unprecedented acceleration, the world will miss that target by over a century.
Africa’s Uneven March: Hope and Hesitation
Sub-Saharan Africa has closed 68.0 per cent of its gender gap, placing the region sixth among the eight global regions covered by the WEF index; since 2006, the region’s parity score has improved by 5.6 percentage points, but outcomes remain highly uneven across its 36 economies. Namibia is the region’s highest-ranked economy at 81.1 per cent, the only Sub-Saharan economy to sit in the global top ten, while Chad ranks near the bottom at 57.1 per cent.
On economic participation, Sub-Saharan Africa ranks fifth with a subindex score of 67.5 per cent, reflecting a 4.8 percentage-point gain since 2006. Within the region, there is wide dispersion: Chad records the lowest economic score (44.4 per cent), while Botswana leads the world in economic participation and opportunity at 87.3 per cent. Female labour-force participation varies dramatically from about 39.2 per cent in Senegal to 80.7 per cent in Nigeria, and representation in senior economic leadership ranges from 11.6 per cent in Chad to nearly 69.9 per cent in Burkina Faso.
Educational attainment and health show stronger results but still mask gaps. Sub-Saharan Africa’s educational-attainment parity score stands at 85.6 per cent, an improvement of 5.2 percentage points since 2006, driven largely by gains in enrolment parity; in many countries, women now outpace men at tertiary levels, even where literacy and primary-enrolment shortfalls persist. The region’s health and survival indicators cluster close to global averages, but healthy-life-expectancy differences and literacy shortfalls in some countries remain concerns.
Political empowerment in the region has advanced notably but remains far from parity. Sub-Saharan Africa records 22.2 per cent on the Political Empowerment subindex, a 12.4 percentage-point improvement since 2006, and women now occupy 40.2 per cent of ministerial roles and 37.7 per cent of parliamentary seats across the region. Rwanda is the only economy in Sub-Saharan Africa to have achieved full parliamentary parity; South Africa and Cape Verde follow with parliamentary parity rates recorded at around 81 per cent and 80 per cent, respectively.
Taken together, these WEF figures show a continent that has made measurable advances yet remains highly heterogeneous: several African economies lead globally on specific subindexes while others lag by decades. The policy challenge is therefore twofold: scale up what works in frontrunner countries, and close the implementation gaps that still limit meaningful progress in the poorest and most fragile settings.
The Economic Equation: Women at Work, Growth at Stake
The WEF’s 2025 data underscores the economic consequences of underrepresentation. Across the world, women’s workforce participation has risen to 41.2 per cent, with notable gains in sectors once dominated by men, such as infrastructure (+8.9 percentage points). Yet, the gender divide remains acute: women are still heavily concentrated in care-related fields, 58.5 per cent in healthcare and 52.9 per cent in education, while men dominate high-paying and technical industries.
In Africa, this structural imbalance is reflected in income inequality. Women continue to be underrepresented in formal, high-wage sectors such as engineering, finance, and ICT, while dominating informal and unpaid care work. Even in countries with near-parity in education, economic outcomes lag.
The WEF notes that the Economic Participation and Opportunity gap globally has improved by 5.6 percentage points since 2006, but will still take another 135 years to close if the current pace continues. For Africa, the implications are stark: unless governments prioritise female inclusion in productive and leadership roles, the continent risks forfeiting billions in lost GDP potential each year.
Power and Politics: The Slow Rise of Women in Leadership
Africa has made visible, though fragile, strides in political representation. The region now records 22.2 per cent political empowerment, an increase from near zero at the inception of the WEF index in 2006. Today, 40.2 per cent of ministerial roles and 37.7 per cent of parliamentary seats are held by women across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Countries such as South Africa, Ethiopia, and Senegal have maintained near-equal gender distribution in cabinets. However, women remain largely absent from defence, finance, and infrastructure portfolios, where public investment decisions with the greatest economic implications are made.
Globally, women hold fewer than one-third of parliamentary speakerships, and only nine countries have closed more than half of their political empowerment gaps. The WEF report finds that while legal frameworks for gender equality exist in most countries, the “implementation gap” remains a major obstacle where laws are passed, but enforcement and institutional support lag far behind.
Education and Health
Education and health remain Africa’s most encouraging areas of progress. The region’s Educational Attainment parity score stands at 85.6%, a gain of 5.2 percentage points since 2006. Women now surpass men in tertiary enrolment rates in several African economies, echoing global patterns. However, literacy gaps persist in countries like Chad, Niger, and Guinea, where fewer than 50 per cent of women achieve tertiary-level parity.
Health and survival rates, though near-global averages, still reveal disparities in life expectancy and reproductive health access. The regional parity score for Health and Survival stands at 96.8 per cent, slightly above the global average of 96.2 per cent, with women living longer but often spending fewer years in full health.
What Lies Ahead
The message from the Global Gender Gap Report 2025 is unambiguous: progress is happening, but too slowly. The world’s gender parity score of 68.8 per cent represents incremental advancement, yet the 123-year timeline to global parity remains a sobering reminder of persistent systemic barriers.
For Africa, the pathway forward lies in accelerating the inclusion of women in high-value industries, strengthening legal enforcement mechanisms, investing in girls’ education, and reimagining leadership pipelines across public and private institutions. Initiatives such as the African Union’s Strategy for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE), the WEF’s Gender Parity Accelerators, and national reforms in Namibia, Rwanda, and Botswana demonstrate that when gender parity is treated as an economic policy rather than a social afterthought, transformation follows.
The story of gender parity in Africa is one of resilience, progress, and persistent struggle. The continent has achieved much, some of its nations are global exemplars, but the unfinished chapters remain vast. The WEF’s 2025 report serves both as a mirror and a map: a reflection of the strides made, and a guide to the road ahead.
Gender parity is not a favour to women; it is a framework for economic survival and collective prosperity. The sooner Africa and the world grasp this truth, the closer we move towards closing the 123-year gap not just in statistics, but in the lived realities of women everywhere.
