science

Global Gender Gap Report

Global Gender Gap Report is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Global Gender Gap Report rather than just read about it. In short: The Global Gender Gap Report is an index designed to measure gender equality. It was first published in 2006 by the World Economic Forum.It "assesses countries on how well they are dividing their resources and opportunities among their male and female populations, regardless of the overall levels of these resources and opportunities," the Report says. "By providing a comprehensible framework for assessing and compar…

Key takeaways

Global Gender Gap Report belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Global Gender Gap Report to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Global Gender Gap Report from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Global Gender Gap Report is an index designed to measure gender equality. It was first published in 2006 by the World Economic Forum.It "assesses countries on how well they are dividing their resources and opportunities among their male and female populations, regardless of the overall levels of these resources and opportunities," the Report says. "By providing a comprehensible framework for assessing and comparing global gender gaps and by revealing those countries that are role models in dividing these resources equitably between women and men, the Report serves as a catalyst for greater awareness as well as greater exchange between policymakers." According to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2023, it will take 131 years for the gender gap to close.

Methodology The report's Gender Gap Index ranks countries regarding the gender inequality in four key areas: health, education, economy and politics.

Economic participation and opportunity – outcomes on salaries, participation levels and access to high-skilled employment Educational attainment – outcomes on access to basic and higher-level education Political empowerment – outcomes on representation in decision-making structures Health and survival – outcomes on life expectancy and sex ratio. In this case parity is not assumed, there are assumed to be fewer female births than male (944 female for every 1,000 males), and men are assumed to die younger. Provided that women live at least six percent longer than men, parity is assumed. But if it is less than six percent it counts as a gender gap. Thirteen out of the fourteen variables used to create the index are from publicly available "hard data" indicators from international organizations, such as the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Health Organization.

2025 Report The 2025 report covered 148 economies. Papua New Guinea and Trinidad and Tobago returned to the index, and Gabon was included for the first time. Several countries that were ranked in previous editions, are not covered in the 2025 edition. These include Afghanistan (last ranked in 2023), Bahamas (2021), Cuba (2021), Iraq (2021), Malawi (2023), Mauritania (2021), Myanmar (2023), Qatar (2024), Russia (2021), Syria (2021), Venezuela (2021), and Yemen (2021).

Global Gender Gap Index 2006-2025 The highest possible score is 1.0 (equality or better for women, except for lifespan (106% or better for women) and gender parity at birth (94.4% or better for women) and the lowest possible score is 0. Data for some countries are unavailable.

Upper limiting value of the Gender Gap Index

Gender Gap Index: 3.98 / 4 = 0.9949 This is the upper limiting value of the Gender Gap Index for the female-to-male ratio and for the male-to-female ratio.

Criticisms and challenges

The index is designed to "measure gender-based gaps in access to resources and opportunities in countries rather than the actual level of the available resources and opportunities in those countries." In an academic publication from 2010, Beneria and Permanyer criticized the Global Gender Gap Index for only capturing inequality in certain aspects of women's lives therefore making it an incomplete measure of gender inequality. In an academic publication from 2019, Stoet and Geary discussed several limitations of the index. For example, in the current ranking methodology, no country can, by definition, be more favorable for women than for men. This causes the index to undervalue issues that disproportionately affect men. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2021, the index does not penalize a country where women outperform men in certain aspects, and it considers that parity is achieved in life expectancy only if women live five years longer than men.

See also Gender Empowerment Measure Gender Inequality Index Gender-Related Development Index Social Institutions and Gender Index Female labour force in the Muslim world Gender pay gap Women's rights in 2014 Women Peace and Security Index

Notes

References

External links "Women Leaders and Gender Parity". World Economic Forum. Geneva, Switzerland. Archived from the original on 2008-11-13. Retrieved 2008-11-19. Daily chart: Sex and equality, The Economist, Oct 25th 2013

Reports Saadia Zahidi; Yanjun Guo; Silja Baller; Kim Piaget, eds. (2025). The Global Gender Gap Report 2025 (PDF) (Report). World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland. p. 13. Retrieved 2025-12-01. Ricardo Hausmann; Laura D. Tyson; Yasmina Bekhouche; Saadia Zahidi (2014). The Global Gender Gap Index 2014 (PDF). World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland. Retrieved 2014-11-26. Ricardo Hausmann; Laura D. Tyson; Saadia Zahidi, eds. (2013). The Global Gender Gap Report 2013 (PDF) (Report). World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland. Retrieved 2013-10-26. Ricardo Hausmann; Laura D. Tyson; Saadia Zahidi, eds. (2012). The Global Gender Gap Report 2012 (PDF) (Report). World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland. Retrieved 2012-10-26. The Global Gender Gap Report 2011 (PDF) (Report). World Economic Forum. Ricardo Hausmann; Laura D. Tyson; Saadia Zahidi, eds. (2010). The Global Gender Gap Report 2010 (PDF) (Report). World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland. Retrieved 2010-10-20. Ricardo Hausmann; Laura D. Tyson; Saadia Zahidi, eds. (2009). The Global Gender Gap Report 2009 (PDF) (Report). World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-04-05. Retrieved 2009-11-02. Ricardo Hausmann; Laura D. Tyson; Saadia Zahidi, eds. (2008). The Global Gender Gap Report 2008 (PDF) (Report). World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland. Retrieved 2008-11-19. Ricardo Hausmann; Laura D. Tyson; Saadia Zahidi, eds. (2007). The Global Gender Gap Report 2007 (PDF) (Report). World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland. Retrieved 2008-11-19. Ricardo Hausmann; Laura D. Tyson; Saadia Zahidi, eds. (2006). The Global Gender Gap Report 2006 (PDF) (Report). World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland. Retrieved 2008-11-19.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Global Gender Gap Report

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Global Gender Gap Report claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Global Gender Gap Report before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Global Gender Gap Report ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Global Gender Gap Report

In research: Global Gender Gap Report appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Global Gender Gap Report in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Global Gender Gap Report is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2006 documents, Books about economic inequality, Economic indicators, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Global Gender Gap Report outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Global Gender Gap Report in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Global Gender Gap Report means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Global Gender Gap Report out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Global Gender Gap Report in simple terms?

Why does Global Gender Gap Report matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Global Gender Gap Report?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Global Gender Gap Report.