At the dawn of the 2020s, building fairer and more inclusive economies must be the goal of global, national and industry leaders. To get there, instilling gender parity across education, health, politics and across all forms of economic
participation will be critical.

Over the past 14 years the Global Gender Gap Index included in this report has served as a compass to track progress on relative gaps between women and men on health, education, economy and politics. Through this annual yardstick, stakeholders within each country are able to set priorities relevant in each specific economic, political and cultural context.

This year’s report highlights the growing urgency for action. Without the equal inclusion of half of the world’s talent, we will not be able to deliver on the promise of the Fourth Industrial Revolution for all of society, grow our economies for greater shared prosperity or achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. At the present rate of change, it will take nearly a century to achieve parity, a timeline we simply cannot accept in today’s globalized world, especially among younger generations who hold increasingly progressive views of gender equality.

Fortunately, the pathways to accelerating gender parity have also become more evident. Companies must treat people
with dignity and respect and offer equal opportunities to all members of the society, leveraging gender diversity and
investing in all of their talent through ongoing upskilling and reskilling. Governments must create policies that provide
talent development, integration and deployment opportunities for all genders, diversify the leadership pool and provide
support to families and caregivers, in both youthful and ageing societies alike. And business and government must
work together on creating a new economic and social narrative for action and on coordinating and speeding up the
process of change.

This year’s edition of the report benchmarks 153 countries and provides country rankings that allow for effective comparisons across and within regional peers. The methodology and quantitative analysis behind the rankings are intended to serve as a basis for designing effective measures for reducing gender gaps.
The methodology of the index has remained stable since its original conception in 2006, providing a basis for robust cross-country and time-series analysis.