World Economic Forum says COVID-19 pandemic reversed gender parity efforts by a generation

The World Economic Forum on Tuesday said the COVID-19 pandemic has reversed years of gender parity efforts, adding women will have to wait for another generation before gender equality could be achieved. The Global Gender Gap Report 2021 suggests the gap between men and women that had already been closed, have partially reopened due to the COVID-19-induced economic crisis. The report underscores studies that suggest the pandemic has impacted women more severely than men. 

The World Economic Forum, which benchmarks the evolution of gender-based gaps on four key dimensions, has said that it will take more than 135 years to close gender gaps if the world keeps moving on its current trajectory. The report stated that ‘political empowerment remains the largest of the four gaps, including economic participation, educational attainment, and health. The report said that the gender gap in political empowerment has further widened since 2020, adding it will take another 145 years to achieve gender parity in politics. 

Iceland most gender-equal nation

The report estimated that at the current relative pace, it will take more than 195 years for South Asia to close the gender gap, which is behind all other regions in the world, including the Middle-East. The report said that Western Europe (52.1 years) followed by North America (61.5 years) are going to be the first regions to achieve gender parity. According to the report, the most gender-equal country in the world is Iceland, which topped the index for the 12th year. Other countries on the list are Finland (2nd), Norway (3rd), New Zealand (4th), Sweden (5th). 

The report said that the most improved countries this year are Lithuania, Serbia, the United Arab Emirates, Timor-Leste, and Togo, which got its first female head of state just recently. Timor-Leste and Togo are the only two countries that have managed to close their economic participation gap by a full 10 percentage points in a year. The index benchmarked three additional countries this year, including Afghanistan, Guyana, and Niger.

(Image Credit: AP)