Social Issues
Global Gender Gap Report 2026
The World Economic Forum's annual index again shows that economic participation and political empowerment remain the widest gaps — for the world and for India.
2 min readPrelimsGS Paper IGS Paper II
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Why is this in the news?
The World Economic Forum (WEF) has released the 2026 edition of the Global Gender Gap Report, which benchmarks countries on how far they have closed gaps between women and men.
About the index
The Global Gender Gap Index was first published in 2006. It scores countries between 0 and 1, where 1 indicates full parity.
| Sub-index | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Economic Participation & Opportunity | Labour-force participation, wage equality, senior and professional roles |
| Educational Attainment | Literacy and enrolment across primary, secondary and tertiary education |
| Health & Survival | Sex ratio at birth and healthy life expectancy |
| Political Empowerment | Women in parliament, ministerial positions and years with a female head of state |
India: the recurring pattern
- Near-parity in educational attainment, driven by enrolment gains.
- Persistent gaps in economic participation, particularly female labour-force participation and estimated earned income.
- Low scores on political empowerment, given the share of women in Parliament and the Union Cabinet.
UPSC relevance
- Prelims: publishing organisation, sub-indices, index scale.
- GS Paper I: role of women and women's organisations.
- GS Paper II: welfare schemes for vulnerable sections.
Way forward
Care infrastructure, safe public transport, skilling aligned to growing sectors and formalisation of work are commonly cited levers to raise women's economic participation.
TagsWEFGenderIndices & Reports
All current affairs for 17 September 2026