From policy and governance to finance and technology, each country operates differently across various aspects of public life. However, there is one commonality: A lack of women leaders and representatives. According to a new UN Women report, gender parity in national parliaments will take another 63 years, and, at the current rate of progress, equal rights and opportunities for women will not be achieved for another 171 years.

Currently, women hold only 27.4 per cent of parliamentary seats globally. Moreover, their representation in national Cabinets has fallen to 22.4 per cent in 2026 after peaking at 23.3 per cent in 2024, signalling the fragility of growth in women’s representation in politics. Despite the report showing evidence of improved Sustainable Development Goal outcomes in regions led by women, key portfolios such as the economy, health, education and defence lack women’s participation. Globally, only 19.5 per cent of economy ministers and 26.3 per cent of health ministers are women.

“As long as power remains concentrated in institutions that systematically exclude women, societies will continue to fall short of their full potential,” Sima Bahous, UN Women executive director, said in the ‘Gender Snapshot 2026’ report.

Of the 175 chief justices across the world, only 31 are women. On the corporate side, even though women hold 25.1 per cent of board seats, only 5.8 per cent of chief executive officers at publicly traded companies are women. Data from 2020 to 2025 reveals that companies in 80 per cent of countries paid female managers less per hour than men.

The report argues that the gap across the spectrum cannot be accidental and is by design — the result of unequal laws and stereotypes. This, it adds, affects not only women who are denied leadership roles but also the health, education, safety and economic future of everyone around them. For instance, in countries where women hold more than 20 per cent of parliamentary seats, immunisation rates are up to 12 percentage points higher, and more children survive past early childhood than in countries with lower shares of women in Parliament.

“Women raised gender equality as an issue nearly three times as often as men at the UN General Assembly General Debate in 2025,” the report highlights. This made issues such as care, health, parental leave and unpaid care work points of discussion on global platforms.

With women making up only 22 per cent of artificial intelligence professionals globally, technology emerges as another area of discrimination. The proportion of women in leading AI jobs falls further to 14 per cent.

Source: UN Women Database on Women and Men Cabinet Members