This report uses the Women’s Empowerment Index and the Global Gender Parity Index to provide a more complete picture of countries’ progress towards women’s empowerment and gender equality. These indices are a key contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) stock-taking moment at the 2023 SDG Summit and a means of furthering efforts to achieve SDG 5 on gender equality.
The findings are sobering. Women’s power and freedom to make choices and seize opportunities remain largely restricted, and no country has achieved full gender parity. Low women’s empowerment and large gender gaps are commonplace. The analysis also shows that higher human development is not the answer in isolation. Some countries on the lower range of the Human Development Index have some of the smallest gender gaps. The global community was already off track to achieve gender equality by 2030 before these cascading crises, but current trends have pushed progress farther off course.
The authors hope the twin indices will provide a critical gender perspective as countries navigate this period of turmoil and vulnerability and support policy change and collective action to fulfill the promises of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Source: UN Women
