The Global Gender Gap Index 2015, a product of the work of the World Economic Forum, is an interactive, mapped index that ranks 145 economies according to how well they are leveraging their female talent pool, based on economic, educational, health-based and political indicators. The index benchmarks national gender gaps based on these criteria to provides country rankings that allow for effective comparisons. With a decade of data, this edition of the Global Gender Gap Report – first published in 2006 – shows that while the world has made progress overall, stubborn inequalities remain.
Highlights of the data show that since 2006, a quarter of a million women have entered the global workforce, yet the annual pay for women only now equals the amount men were earning ten years ago. The biggest progress towards the closing the gender gap has been in the political world, although here, much more needs to be done. Progress in the economic and political worlds has been proven to be self-reinforcing, so interventions such as quotas – which have been demonstrated to have wider positive effects – offer insight into how the gap could be closed further in future. Users can examine the data for individual countries, compare countries, view and share infographics, and view videos and blogs regarding the data. The site also includes a user’s guide on how the country profiles work, and provides a highlights package drawn from the 2015 findings.