Twenty years of data reveal something important about gender parity: progress is possible. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2026 finds that the world has reached its highest level of gender parity since the index was launched in 2006.

Across the 97 economies tracked throughout those two decades, 69.4% of the gender gap has now been closed, an improvement of 5.2 percentage points since 2006. Nearly every economy in the sample has made progress. And momentum is returning. After setbacks around the pandemic, more than half of the economies measured have been advancing again since 2024.

Some regions offer particularly strong signals. Latin America and the Caribbean has made the greatest long-term improvement, narrowing its gender gap by 8.6 percentage points since 2006. In Sub-Saharan Africa, Namibia now ranks fourth globally, while Kenya and Ghana were among the biggest climbers in this year’s ranking.

But progress remains far too slow

At the current pace, the World Economic Forum estimates that full global gender parity is still 120 years away. Economic participation and political empowerment remain the largest gaps, while women hold just 19.1% of CEO positions.

The report’s twenty-year perspective, however, provides an important counterpoint to those numbers: the gap is not immutable.

“Twenty years of data show that gender parity is achievable. Economies at every income level have made progress, so the barrier is not a lack of resources,” said Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director, World Economic Forum. “Parity is a foundation for growth and competitiveness, but 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.”

Highlights

• Nearly every economy tracked since 2006 has advanced gender parity, yet full parity is 120 years away.
• Political empowerment has seen the largest gains since 2006 but has reversed since 2016. The share of economies led by a woman peaked in 2022 and has fallen back to 2016 levels.
• Women have reached the C-suite and cabinets but are underrepresented in roles carrying the greatest economic and political influence: women hold 19.1% of chief executive officer roles, while only one in 10 ministerial portfolios held by women is considered high influence.
• Women account for fewer than one in five AI engineers and are underrepresented at every level in AI firms.

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Source: World Economic Forum