The Slowdown in Reducing Gender Inequality

A growing body of research shows that gender inequality has important economic implications. For example, the literature on the impact of gender gaps in school enrollment and labor force participation finds that they help reduce income inequality by benefiting girls and women from low-income households, boosting household productivity, improving firm/institution performance, strengthening macroeconomic stability, and lowering wage disparities (Kochhar and others, 2017; Sahay and colleagues, 2018; Gonzales and others, 2015b).

But while there have been major gains over decades, a look at country-level trends shows that progress has stalled since around 2000. Some countries have even experienced regress in certain dimensions, including in the share of top earners who are women (see this visualization by clicking on “Add a country” at the bottom of the chart).

What’s going on? In part, the slowdown reflects that reducing gender inequality requires more than economic development and technology—it requires policies to address social norms. And addressing such issues is often more difficult than tackling inequality in its more visible forms.

Gender inequality shows up in a variety of ways: for example, women’s role as family executives means they do more nonmarket work, such as childcare and meal preparation; inequalities in remuneration for men and women can arise for many reasons, not just because firms prefer to hire male workers; the short-term peak in female wages around childbirth is largely due to their reduced working hours, which leads them to trade-off paid work with unpaid domestic chores; and they may have smaller pensions as a result.

In addition, many countries face persistent social norms that lead to violence against women and the disproportionate number of women’s deaths in wars and natural disasters. This has a direct effect on women’s employment and income, as well as their health and wellbeing.

A key lesson is that it’s crucial to have good data and rigorous analytical work to understand the dynamics of gender inequality, and to measure progress over time. This is why it’s so critical that governments collect gender-disaggregated data (e.g., by country and occupation) on a regular basis, making it available for public consumption. While the global availability of such data has improved, it’s still uneven. Continued efforts are needed to expand its scope and quality, especially in developing countries.

In addition, policy makers should also be careful not to focus on narrowly defined metrics of progress, such as achieving equality in all aspects of life or closing all gaps. This could distract from broader objectives, such as enabling women to make independent choices about their lives and careers. In this context, a re-evaluation of how we measure success in eliminating gender inequality is overdue. Fortunately, the evidence is clear: when there’s enough political will and funding, policy reforms can be effective in driving progress toward a more equal world. This is not just a matter of fairness, but of human dignity. The future depends on it.