The gender gap may not be closed for another 131 years globally, the World Economic Forum finds.
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It will take another 131 years for the world to achieve gender equality worlwide, according to the WEF.
Iceland has closed over 90% of its gender gap, but the US ranked just 43rd globally for gender equality.
The statistics come from the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Gender Gap report.
Gender equality is starting to feel like a far-off dream especially as it could take the world another 131 years to close the gender gap, according to the World Economic Forum.
The WEF published its 2023 Global Gender Gap Report on Tuesday and examined gender parity across 146 countries, finding that the gender gap has closed across a variety of areas of society by 68.4% globally, up 0.3% from 2022’s 68.1% score.
The gender gap measures equality across areas like the economy, education, health, and politics, according to WEF.
The slow rate of progress means it won’t be until 2154 that we reach full gender parity between men and women, the WEF’s report says, basing that number on the gender gap closing at the same rate every year.
It will take 162 years to close the political empowerment gender gap, and 169 years to close the economic participation and opportunity gap, while no clear timeline is known for the health and survival gap.
On a positive note, gender equality in educational attainment is within close reach, as it will only take 16 years to close the gap in this area.
Although no country has reached full gender equality just yet, Iceland took the top position for the 14th year running having closed 91.2% of its overall gender gap — the only country with a figure above 90%.
Norway, Finland, Sweden, and New Zealand were also in the top five respectively, with scores of over 80%.
The United States however is falling behind in closing the gender gap, dropping to 43rd on the list, down from 27th last year. The country’s parity score fell by 2.1% to 74.8%.
“Recent years have been marked by major setbacks for gender parity globally, with previous progress disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on women and girls in education and the workforce, followed by economic and geopolitical crises,” Saadia Zahidi, managing director at WEF said in the report.
“Today, some parts of the world are seeing partial recoveries while others are experiencing deteriorations as new crises unfold. Global gender gaps in health and education have narrowed over the past year, yet progress on political empowerment is effectively at a standstill, and women’s economic participation has regressed rather than recovered.”
Alongside these issues, the gender wage gap also continues to be a persistent issue in the US.
An analysis by the Center for American Progress earlier this month found that it could take another 33 years to close the gender pay gap, which means waiting until at least 2056.