Thirty years ago, the world agreed to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. A blueprint for women and girls’ rights worldwide that transformed the women’s rights agenda across several dimensions. Despite these worthy objectives, the World Economic Forum recently estimated that with current rates of improvement, full gender parity will be reached in 134 years, or around the year 2158.
The theme of the International Women’s Day 2025 is “For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.” The theme underlines the importance of empowering the next generation as catalysts for lasting change. Empowering youth, particularly young women and adolescent girls is central to the vision of a future where no one – irrespective of gender – is left behind.
To get an idea of the size of the mountain to be climbed, dive into the data available at the World Development Indicators database of the World Bank. The database allows detailed analysis of the different dimensions of gender parity, how much (or little) progress has been made, and whether differences exist across regions, for instance. The charts below highlight two key areas where progress has been made over the past decades, but where very large gaps remain.
For instance, the share of seats in national parliaments held by women has more than doubled in the period from 1997 to 2023. Still, only about 1 in 4 seats (27 pct) were held by women in 2023 and women took up at least half the seats of parliament in only six countries; Rwanda, Cuba, Nicaragua, Andorra, Mexico, and the United Arab Emirates. According to UN Women, it will take another 40 years to reach gender parity in national legislative bodies given current trajectories.