World Women 2020 Report – UPSC GS1

About the report: The report has been produced every five years since 1990 and provides the latest data on the state of gender equality worldwide.

World’s Women 2020 Report: It provides a reality-check on the global status of women 25 years since adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (for advancing women’s rights).

Gender Gap: In 2020, only 47% of women of working age participated in the labour market, compared to 74% of men – a gender gap that has remained relatively constant since 1995.

Unpaid domestic and care work holding women back: On an average day, women globally spend about three times as many hours on unpaid domestic and care work as men (4.2 hours compared to 1.7).

Women’s In terms of power and decision making: Women held only 28% of managerial positions globally in 2019 – almost the same proportion as in 1995.

Women in Politics: In political life, women’s representation in parliament has more than doubled globally. However, it has still not crossed the barrier of 25% of parliamentary seats in 2020.

Women’s participation in education on the rise worldwide: School closures related to COVID-19 are likely to set back progress on access to education. But evidence has shown that girls, once they have access to schooling, tend to do better than boys in terms of academic achievement.

In tertiary education, women outnumber men and enrolment is increasing faster for women than for men.

However, women continue to be underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, representing only slightly more than 35% of the world’s STEM graduates.

Violence against women and girls remains a global issue: Around one third of women worldwide have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner and 18% have experienced such violence in the past 12 months.