GGGR 2023

score indicates that, on average, only 64.9% of the gender gap in labour-force participation has been closed. Comparing the 102-country constant sample scores of 63.8% for 2023 and 62.9% for 2022, this marks a partial recovery. Chapter 2 examines recent dynamics in labour-force participation and related labour-market outcomes in more detail. Though stark income gaps continue to hinder economic gender parity, with almost half (48.1%) of the overall earned income gap yet to close, results indicate that many countries experienced improvements since last year. Ninety-six countries (out of the 145 included in 2022 and 2023) progressed in bridging income gaps. The highest- scoring countries on this dimension include Liberia, followed by Zimbabwe (97.6%), Tanzania (90.3%), Burundi (88.3%), Barbados (88.1%) and Norway (85.1%), which all stand at above 85% parity. At the bottom of the distribution, Iran (17.1%), Algeria (19.2%) and Egypt (19.7%) display some of the largest inequalities between the incomes of men and women, scoring less than 20% parity. When it comes to wages for similar work, the only countries in which the gender gap is perceived as more than 80% closed are Albania (85.8%) and Burundi (84.1%). Merely a quarter of the 146 economies included in this year’s edition score between 70%-80% on this indicator. These include some of the most advanced economies, such as Iceland (78.4% of gap closed), Singapore (78.3%), United Arab Emirates (77.6%), United States (77.3%), Finland (76.3%), Qatar (74.5%), Saudi Arabia (74.1%), Lithuania (74.1%), Slovenia (73.5%), Bahrain (72.8%), Estonia (71.4%), Barbados (71.2%), Luxembourg (70.4%), New Zealand (70.4%), Switzerland (70.3%), and Latvia (70.1%). The lowest-ranking countries on this dimension are Croatia (49.7% of the gap closed) and Lesotho (49.4%). Compared to last year’s performance, Bolivia, El Salvador and South Africa registered the largest improvements in score, of 5 percentage points or more. Cross-country disparities are more pronounced in terms of the gender gap in senior, managerial and legislative roles, which globally stands at 42.9%. Ten countries assessed this year – six of which located in Sub-Saharan Africa – report parity on this indicator. Afghanistan, Pakistan and Algeria rank at the bottom, with less than 5% of professionals in senior positions being women. When it comes to professional and technical positions, 71% of the gender gap has been closed globally. Whereas women’s representation in managerial roles relative to men’s has improved by at least 1 percentage points for 38 countries, gender parity in professional and technical roles has improved for only 20 countries by the same measure (at least 1 percentage points). Educational Attainment is the subindex with the second-highest global parity score, with only 4.8% of the gender gap left to close. When looking at the subset of 145 countries included in both 2022 and 2023, the number of economies with full gender parity in Educational Attainment has increased from 21 to 25. Cross-country scores on this dimension are less dispersed than for the Economic Participation or Political Empowerment subindices, with the majority (80.1%, or 117 out of 146) of participating countries having closed at least 95% of their educational gender gap. Similar to last year, Afghanistan is the only country where the educational gender parity score is below the 50% mark, at 48.2%. At the bottom of the distribution, we also encounter the Sub-Saharan countries of Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Angola, Niger and Mali – all with scores above 60%, but below 80% in educational parity (between 63.7%-77.9%). Across indicators of the subindex, gender parity is lowest for literacy rate: globally, 94% of the gender gap in the proportion of those over 15 years of age who are literate has closed. Fifty-six countries have achieved full parity in literacy rate, whereas Afghanistan and Sub-Saharan countries such as Mali, Liberia, Chad and Guinea all register parity scores below 55%. When it comes to enrolment in primary education, full parity scores are more widespread: 65 countries register equivalent rates of enrolment in primary education for boys and for girls. The rest of the countries included this year display at least 90% parity, apart from the Sub- Saharan countries of Mali, Guinea and Chad, which score within the 80.4%-89.9% range. Cross-national variation is wider for both secondary and tertiary enrolment. Whereas most countries (135) included in this edition closed at least 80% of their gender gap in secondary enrolment, a handful of countries remain below this threshold, with Congo (64% of the gap closed), Chad (58.3%) and Afghanistan (57.1) ranking last. Geographical disparities are even starker for tertiary education. While 101 countries display full parity on this indicator, including Cambodia as the most recent to reach the 1 parity mark this year, 18 more countries stand within the 80.2%-99.5% range, while several countries from Sub-Saharan Africa (such as Burkina Faso, Mali and Côte d’Ivoire), Southern Asia (Afghanistan), and Eurasia and Central Asia (Tajikistan) still have between 21.7% (Côte d’Ivoire) and 71% (Afghanistan) of their gaps left to close. The Health and Survival subindex displays the highest level of gender parity globally (at 96%) as well as the most clustered distribution of scores. The majority of countries (91.1%) register at most 2 percentage points above the average, and only a handful of others (13 out of 146) register at most 2.4 percentage points below the average. Twenty- six countries – most from Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa – display the top score of 98% parity,1 whereas Qatar, Viet Nam and populous countries such as Azerbaijan, India and China all score below the 95% mark. Global Gender Gap Report 2023 13