Global Gender Gap Report 2020 - World Economic Forum

World Economic Forum has published its 14th annual Global Gender Gap Report 2020.

India slipped by four positions to 112th position in Gender Gap Index 2019 in comparison to rank 108th in 2018. 

The Global Gender Gap Report 2020 ranks 153 countries based on their progress towards achieving Gender Parity in four key areas:

i) Health and Survival,

ii) Education Attainment,

iii) Economic Participation and Opportunity,

iv) Political Empowerment

The most gender neutral country in the world is Iceland which topped the Global Gender Gap Report 2020 11th time in a row, securing Rank 1 with a score of 87.7% followed by Norway (Rank 2), Finland (Rank 3) and Sweden (Rank 4).

The bottom three countries in Global Gender Gap Index 2019 are:

• Rank 153rd: Yemen (Worst country)
• Rank 152nd: Iraq
• Rank 151st: Pakistan 

The time required to close Gender Gap and achieve Gender Parity has decreased from 108 years in Global Gender Gap Report 2019 to 99.5 years in Global Gender Gap Report 2020.

The time required to close Political Gender Gap has decreased from 107 years in Global Gender Gap Report 2019 to 95 years in Global Gender Gap Report 2020.

Women now hold 25.2% parliamentary lower-house seats and 21.2% ministerial positions in the world where as last year it was 24.1% and 19% respectively.

The time required to close Economic Gender Gap has worsened from 202 years in Global Gender Gap Report 2019 to 257 years in Global Gender Gap Report 2020.

India's position in Global Gender Gap Index

1) India's position slipped by 4 places in comparison to 2018.

The first Global Gender Gap Report was published in 2006 by World Economic Forum (WEF) and India stood at 98th position that year.

The  Global Gender Gap Report 2020 is the 14th edition of the report published by WEF and India stands at 112th position whereas last year India stood at 108th position.

India's Ranking:

• Global Gender Gap Index 2019: Rank 112th  
• Global Gender Gap Index 2018: Rank 108th 
• Global Gender Gap Index 2017: Rank 108th
• Global Gender Gap Index 2006: Rank 98th 

2) India's position in comparison to other Asian countries in Global Gender Gap Report 2020:

• Bangladesh: Rank 50th - leads South Asia region
• Nepal: Rank 101st
• SriLanka: Rank 102nd
• China: Rank 106th
• India: Rank 112th 
• Pakistan: Rank 151st

3) India's Rank in sub-indices of Global Gender Gap Index 2019 is as follows:

i) Health and Survival: Rank 150th

• Reasons for low rank are Violence, forced marriage, discrimination in health access.
• Low sex ratio at birth: 91 girls for every 100 boys

ii) Education Attainment: Rank 112th

iii) Economic Participation and Opportunity: Rank 149th

iv) Political Empowerment: Rank 18th

4) India has closed 2/3th of its overall Gender Gap and has a score of 66.8%.

5) Out of 153 countries, India is the only country in the world where economic gender gap is wider than political gender gap.

6) Female earned income merely one-fifth of male income which is lowest in the world with India standing at 144th rank.

7) Women accounted for just 14% of leadership roles (Rank 136th) and 30% of professional and technical workers.


What is World Economic Forum?

World Economic Forum (WEF) is a non-profit organization for public-private cooperation having headquarters at Geneva, Switzerland.

WEF was founded by Professor Klaus Schwab in 1971.

The annual meeting of World Economic Forum is organized in January called as DAVOS.

Summer Davos is an annual meeting of New Champions, started in 2007 and organized each year in China, alternatively in the cities of Dalian and Tianjin.


The important reports published by World Economic Forum (WEF) are:

• Global Competitiveness Report
• Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report
• Global Gender Gap Report
• Global Risks Report