GGGR 2025

Global Gender Gap Report 202565As the world move into increasingly uncharted economic waters, the global gender gap cannot be separated from broader shifts already underway. For nearly two decades, this report has assessed how gender parity is both shaping and being shaped by social and economic outcomes. This lens is now more urgent than ever before, given how current global economic, technological and geopolitical dynamics are impacting the conditions for achieving gender parity. Over the past few decades, trade has been a central pillar of global economic integration, relying on cooperation – at national, regional and organizational levels – as a stabilizing force. However, in 2025, the design and underlying logic of economic flows is changing, and with it the effects that trade can have on growth, jobs and the attainment of socioeconomic goals, including gender parity. Governments have increasingly approached inclusive trade as a catalyst for broader economic development 10 – particularly in trade-dependent economies, where women’s participation in trade has become central to national economic strategies. 11 While trade has yet to offer fully comprehensive solutions to fair, inclusive and decent employment, it has nonetheless had positive effect on women’s economic empowerment.12 Furthermore, international financial institutions have found that through these initial gains, international trade flows have contributed to advancing gender equality. 13 Women in low- and middle-income countries in particular have benefited economically from the past 30 years of global trade integration in a number of ways. For example, many have moved out of the informal economy or the domestic economy into formal jobs that have been created in fast-growing export sectors. Overall, women’s representation in firms that are integrated into global value chains is higher (33%) than in firms that are not integrated (24%). Since export-related jobs tend to be better remunerated, these shifts have helped close wage gaps between men and women. 14 Moving out of the informal economy into formal jobs created by trade integration has also improved working conditions for women in terms of access to social safety nets, including pensions. 15 In addition, globalization has lowered the prices of goods and services, reducing the cost of living and therefore benefiting those with the lowest incomes. Finally, lower trade costs can improve access to international markets, particularly for smaller economic actors such as women-led and -owned businesses. 16 A dampening of global trade integration could risk many of the gains of recent decades. One estimate shows that a 1% contraction in global trade volumes could put as many as 11 million jobs at risk – of which almost 4.5 million would likely be held by women. 17 A significant impact of such an employment contraction would fall on export-related jobs, which lie at the heart of women’s economic gains from trade integration as described above. It is also unclear whether those who could loose their jobs in export-related activities under such a scenario will, in the long-run, be able to re-integrate into the domestic economy and under what conditions. In lower-income economies, women are disproportionately employed in tradable sectors – particularly Manufacturing and Agriculture – while in high-income economies, they are more likely to work in non-tradable sectors such as healthcare and education. Of the 148 economies included in the 2025 edition of the Global Gender Gap Index, 146 have available data suggesting only one-third of female workers in high-income economies are employed in tradable sectors (Figure 2.14). This share increases to 45% in upper-middle-income economies, 59% in lower-middle-income economies, and up to 72% in low-income economies. With the exception of high-income economies, women in tradable sectors are more likely to be employed in tradable merchandise sectors (e.g. Agriculture, Manufacturing, and Mining) than in other tradable sectors, including tradable services and other activities. As evidenced by the COVID-19 emergency, while both men and women suffer under trade shocks, effects for women tend to last longer and are harder to reverse, exacerbating pre-existing disparities in earnings, assets and wealth. It will therefore be important to keep gendered impacts of trade fragmentation and their effects on growth and prosperity top of mind as trade policy evolves in 2025.Geoeconomic risks and opportunities 2.6