WHAT IS GENDER GAP INDEX?

The Gender Gap Index, developed by the World Economic Forum (WEF), is a framework that measures gender parity across countries, highlighting disparities between men and women in key areas of development.

Introduced in 2006, it provides a standardized way to assess progress toward gender equality and identify areas needing policy intervention. The index ranges from 0 to 1, where 0 represents complete inequality (a total gender gap) and 1 indicates full parity (no gender gap). A score of 0.686, for example, means 68.6% of the gender gap has been closed.

Components of the Gender Gap Index

The index evaluates gender parity across four sub-indices, each weighted equally in the overall score:

1. Economic Participation and Opportunity: Measures women’s involvement in the economy compared to men, including: Labor force participation rate, Wage equality for similar work, Estimated earned income, Representation in senior, managerial, and technical roles. In 2025, this sub-index has the second-largest global gap at 60.5% closed, with India at 39.8% parity, reflecting low female labor force participation (45.9%) and a significant income gap (less than 30% parity).
2. Educational Attainment: Assesses access to education at all levels, including Literacy rates, Enrollment in primary, secondary, and tertiary education Globally, this gap is 94.9% closed in 2025, but India ranks 124th, with a 17.2% literacy gap and stagnant female enrollment growth.
3. Health and Survival: Examines differences in health outcomes, focusing on Sex ratio at birth, Healthy life expectancy This sub-index is 96% closed globally, but India ranks 142nd, with a sex ratio at birth of 92.7% parity compared to the top countries’ 94.4%.
4. Political Empowerment: Evaluates women’s representation in decision-making roles, including Women in parliament, Women in ministerial position, Years with a female head of state This is the largest global gap at 22.5% closed in 2025. India ranks 65th, with 17.2% parliamentary representation and 6.9% in ministerial roles, despite a stronger head-of-state score (40.7%).

Methodology

• The index uses a ratio-based approach, comparing female-to-male outcomes (e.g., female labor force participation rate divided by male rate). Scores are capped at 1 (parity) to avoid penalizing countries where women outperform men.
• Data is sourced from international organizations like the International Labour Organization (ILO), UNESCO, and WHO, as well as national statistics.
• The overall score is a simple average of the four sub-indices, with no weighting for population or economic size, ensuring equal focus on each dimension.
• India’s Context (2025) : In the 2025 Global Gender Gap Report, India ranks 131st out of 148 countries, closing 64.1% of its gap, down from 129th in 2024.

Key challenges include

1. Economic Participation: India’s 39.8% parity reflects low female labor force participation and income disparities, exacerbated by a 17.2% literacy gap and underrepresentation in high-paying sectors.
2. Political Empowerment: Despite a 40.7% head-of-state score, women hold only 6.9% of ministerial positions, and Lok Sabha representation dropped to 13.6% in 2024.
3. Intersection with Household Debt: India’s household debt, at ₹146.63 lakh crore (48.6% of GDP) by March 2025, disproportionately affects women, with 50% of sub-prime borrowers’ loans (often women) being for consumption, not asset creation, increasing financial vulnerability.

Significance

The Gender Gap Index is significant because it:

• Provides a global benchmark for tracking gender equality, influencing policy decisions.
• Highlights structural inequalities, such as India’s economic and political gaps, which intersect with issues like household debt.
• Guides resource allocation, as seen in India’s need for targeted interventions in education and economic inclusion to address the 152-year timeline for closing the economic gap.

While the index is a valuable tool, it has limitations. It doesn’t capture qualitative aspects like workplace harassment or unpaid care work, which disproportionately affect women. In India, the focus on parliamentary representation (17.2%) overlooks grassroots political participation. The establishment narrative of incremental progress (global gap at 68.6%) masks India’s specific challenges, where structural barriers like income inequality and cultural norms hinder faster change. The index’s 123-year timeline for global parity underscores the urgency for more aggressive policy action beyond current measures.

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