The Global Gender Gap Report 2026, published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Wednesday, reveals that gender parity worldwide is closer than ever — standing at 69.2%.
However, the Geneva-based nonprofit warned that full parity may still be 120 years away and that the progress made so far remains “fragile.”
The report, which looked at gender parity across workforce participation, education, health and politics in 145 economies, found that women now occupy senior leadership positions in government and business at levels that were rare globally when the index began in 2006.
Yet, while women’s presence at the top of politics has grown since the first report, the past decade has seen that trend reverse. The percentage of countries led by women peaked in 2022 and has now fallen back to 2016 levels.
WEF Managing Director Saadia Zahidi warned that while parity is a foundation for growth and competitiveness, it is “not inevitable.”
“To accelerate, governments and employers need to learn from the policies that work and apply them faster. A new economy demands a new approach to talent,” Zahidi said in a press release to accompany the report.
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Women still missing in top power roles
The WEF found that women remain underrepresented in roles with the largest economic and political influence. They still hold fewer than a fifth of chief executive officer (CEO) positions, while only one in 10 ministerial roles held by women is considered high influence.
While the number of ministerial roles led by women has risen 26% since 2008, only one in 10 was considered weighty then — a share the WEF report said was “virtually unchanged today.”
Despite nearly $1 trillion (€866 billion) being invested globally to develop artificial intelligence (AI), the report also revealed that fewer than one in five AI engineers are women, and they are underrepresented at every level of AI firms.
For the 17th consecutive year, Iceland leads the ranking with 93% of the gender gap closed, followed by its Nordic neighbors Finland and Norway. The three nations have made the Top 10, along with Sweden, every year since 2006.
Namibia ranked fourth globally, higher than Germany (9th), the United Kingdom (5th) and Australia (8th).
US falls in gender gap ranking
The United States dropped five places in the rankings to 47th, with 74.9% of its gender gap closed.
The country achieved full parity in education for a second year, ranking first in the world in that area.
In the US, women have long matched men in professional and technical jobs, but parity in senior management has fallen by almost 11 points since 2006, the WEF calculated.
The political score fell 4.1 points from last year after the share of women ministers dropped from two-thirds parity to one-half. The decline coincided with a lower share of women serving as Cabinet secretaries in President Donald Trump’s second administration.
The WEF kept the head-of-state indicator for the US at zero as the world’s largest economy has never had a female president.
India stuck while China moves up
India, the world’s most populous country, remains at 131st in the rankings, with 64.5% gender parity closed.
The report noted India’s overall gains amount to a 4.3 percentage-point rise since 2006, which the authors said was mostly due to educational achievement. Women’s labor-market participation has barely moved over 20 years, the WEF noted.
India’s economic parity score has varied significantly since the first report. Parity among professional and technical workers has almost doubled since 2006, to 49.9%. Among legislators, senior officials and managers, however, it is still only 13.1%.
In parliament, India has closed 16.1% of the gender gap, up seven points since 2006, while the share of women in long-serving Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet has fallen recently, with parity slipping to 5.9% from a 30% peak in 2019.
China, meanwhile, rose seven places to 96th, closing 69.9% of its gender gap. Economic parity is its strongest pillar, at 72.3%, but politics has barely moved in 20 years, with women still accounting for only a fraction of ministers.
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Large jumps for Namibia, Kenya and Ghana
Reaching 84.5% parity in the latest report, Namibia leads the way in Sub-Saharan Africa, climbing four places to No. 4 in the ranking.
Namibia has long been well represented by women on the political stage. Last year, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah became its first female president. The country also has a female vice-president and the parliament speaker is a woman, too.
Other African countries were among the biggest climbers in the 2026 rankings, with Kenya rising 33 places in a year to 65th, Ghana up 32 places to 56th and Angola climbing 30 places to 87th.
However, Africa shows the widest range of outcomes for women, the report found, with Chad recording the lowest score of 57.8% parity closed.
Other large climbers in the 2026 report were Guatemala, which rose 31 points to 50th place, and the Czech Republic, which climbed 25 points to 77th.
The WEF also ranked the countries that have progressed the most since 2006 in closing gender gaps, namely Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Iceland, Mexico, Namibia and Nepal.
Edited by: Tim Rooks
