International Women's Day 2025: Progress and setbacks in strive for gender parity
Experts from different sectors worldwide have warned that a faster, more comprehensive approach is needed to accelerate change.
As the world marks this year’s International Women's Day on March 8, attention is drawn to the long road ahead in achieving gender parity.
While the day is meant to celebrate the immense achievements of women, reports highlight the ongoing disparities that persist across countries.
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According to the World Economic Forum (WEF) for instance, despite decades of progress, the goal of gender equality remains far off, with projections indicating that at the current pace, it will take 134 years to reach true parity.
This is well beyond the United Nations' SDG 5 on gender equality and empowering all women and girls, set for 2030.
With this year’s theme being ‘For ALL women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment’, the international think-tank and lobby group is calling on countries to reconsider their strategies to pace up the gender parity strive.
Experts from different sectors worldwide have also warned that a faster, more comprehensive approach is needed to accelerate change.
WEF says some of the key areas of focus countries should prioritise include adopting laws that support greater women's participation in politics and business.
It argues the move will create more inclusive economies and political environments.
It also urges governments to prioritise women and girls in climate action by boosting their leadership roles and access to green jobs, a sector poised for exponential growth in the coming decades.
Social protection systems
According to the think-tank, further investments are necessary in social protection systems and public services, ensuring women are given an equal chance to thrive in all sectors of society.
“Invest in women’s rights organisations already working to prevent and end violence,” WEF adds in part.
Nevertheless, WEF says countries should back the global digital compact so that everyone can benefit from technology and its potential.
SDG5 calls for the world to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls by 2030.
However, the latest global gender gap score in 2024 according to WEF, stands at 68.5 per cent of the gap closed.
Gender parity scores
Compared to the previous year, more economies have registered increases in their gender parity scores, contributing to a narrowing of the overall gender gap.
Notably, Kenya’s score in global ranking has marginally improved, moving two positions up from 2023 to position 75.
The country, according to the 2024 index, has a Gender Parity Index (GPI) score of 0.712, a (+0.004) improvement from the previous year’s score.
The GPI indicates parity between girls and boys. A GPI of less than 1 suggests girls are more disadvantaged than boys in opportunities, and a GPI of greater than 1 suggests the other way around.
Ideally, gender equality is considered attained when the score is 1.
Regionally, Sub-Saharan Africa is reportedly edging closer to gender parity, with a score of 68.4 per cent closed in 2024.
The region is comprised of the largest number of economies in a single grouping (35) and includes three of the 15 most populous countries highlighted in the report, Ethiopia (79th, 70.9 per cent), Nigeria (125th, 65 per cent) and Democratic Republic of the Congo (140th, 60.9 per cent), which can affect overall regional results by edition and over time.
Based on the constant sample and its performance across editions, Sub-Saharan Africa has increased its collective gender parity score by (+5.6) percentage points since 2006, the third-largest improvement made by a region since the launch of the index.
Out of the 35 economies included in the group, 21 are in the top 100, and one, Namibia, is in the top 10.
The top five performers in the region are Namibia (8th, 80.5 per cent), South Africa (18th, 78.5 per cent), Mozambique (27th, 77.6 per cent), Burundi (38th, 75.7 per cent), and Rwanda (39th, 75.7 per cent).
Over half of the Sub-Saharan African countries (18) have closed over 70 per cent of their gender gap, and only Chad trails behind the two-thirds mark (57.6 per cent).
High level of dispersion
Nonetheless, the region is characterised by a high level of dispersion between the top and bottom ranks, with 22.8 percentage points between them.
The region places fourth in Economic Participation and Opportunity, with a score of 68.1 per cent.
Nevertheless, numerous countries in the region are moving promisingly towards economic gender parity.
All economies in the group have gender parity scores over 50 per cent on the labour-force participation rate.
Globally, the 2024 gender gap index found a lack of meaningful, widespread change in the past year.
The index benchmarks 146 countries across four key dimensions (economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment) and tracks progress towards closing gender gaps over time.
“While no country had achieved full gender parity, 97 per cent of the economies included had closed more than 60 per cent of their gap, compared to 85 per cent in 2006,” the report reads.
“Of the four gaps tracked, Political Empowerment remains the largest, with only 22.8 per cent closed, which will take another 169 years to close.”
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