Will Women Reach Full Parity in Our Lifetime?

For my JDEI article I want to talk about the Global Gender Gap Index. Each year it benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions (Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment). It is the longest-standing index tracking the progress of numerous countries’ efforts towards closing these gaps over time since its inception in 2006.
It is a lot readying to get through, so I am bringing to your attention a portion of this report. The World Economic Forum report 2024, explores several areas of note. In their findings where parity (the state or condition of being equal, especially regarding status or pay) for women remains five generations away.

• Global gender gap sees only a slight improvement and will still take five generations to close at current progress.

• Improvement in political participation of women has the most impact as it is where the gap is largest, with top-level positions remaining largely inaccessible for women globally.

• With over 60 national elections in 2024 and the largest global population in history set to vote, women’s political representation and the overall gender gap could improve.

• Parity in global labor-force participation is recovering, reaching 65.7%, up from a pandemic low of 62.3%.

• Women's representation in AI engineering has doubled since 2016, but significant underrepresentation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) fields and AI (Artificial Intelligence) remain.

• Explore the full report, infographics and more here; share on social media using the hashtag #gendergap24.

There are some positive developments despite ongoing challenges. Parity in labor-force participation rates for women have rebounded to 65.7% globally, from a low of 62.3%. Latin America and the Caribbean achieved an overall gender parity score of 74.2%, as well as its highest economic parity score to date (65.7%), driven by strong parity in labor-force participation and professional roles, and the second highest regional political empowerment score (34%). This success story in Latin America can serve as a model for other regions.

We are not progressing; in fact, we slightly went down. Hence the predictions that the parity for women lies five generations away. According to the study, the gender gap is narrowing but the collective rate of progress has slowed down. Without a bold push forward, it will take 134 years to reach full and equal pay.

Our national Advocacy webpage states the following on this subject, “The Alice Paul Equal Rights Amendment shall stand first and foremost above all other items of the advocacy platform until Equal Rights have been guaranteed in the United States Constitution - i.e. "Equality of Rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

Have you looked at this page lately or anytime?

Here is one example of the continued fight for women’s rights. On April 3rd, 2025, EQUAL MEANS EQUAL’s Legal Advisor and renowned impact litigator Wendy Murphy filed EQUAL MEANS EQUAL v Donald J. Trump in Federal Court on behalf of individual plaintiffs and all women to demand that the United States Government allow women to register for the Selective Service, should they so choose.

So, we can see that it is an ongoing gender gap, rights, dialogue, and actions. We need to get engaged, be informed, educate ourselves, and encourage others to join us!

SHER SINGH
NFBPWC JDEI
CHAIR