Based on 2023 trends, the global gender gap is not expected to close for another 131 years - around 30 percent longer than the World Economic Forum's 2020 outlook predicted.

While economic prospects for women have improved majorly once more as the Covid-19 pandemic subsided, the world has been going backwards on the long road to gender equality concerning political and educational equality.

The time required to close the political gender gaps is now forecast at 162 years - rising for the third year in a row, while educational parity is expected in 16 years - down from 2022, but still up from 2020 and 2021.

Overall, the Global gender gap has been 68.1% closed till date. The subindex for Economic Participation and Opportunity saw a rise from 58.7% to 60.3%, indicating a slight improvement in bridging the gender divide.

Similarly, the Health and Survival subindex experienced a marginal increase from 95.7% to 95.8%. The Educational Attainment subindex declined from 95.2% to 94.4%, signaling a setback in educational achievements.

The subindex for Political Empowerment remained stagnant at 22%.

The global economic gender gap has been the most volatile over the years as women's participation in the workforce is often first to be affected by economic crises.

While overall progress on the gender gap still carried on in 2020 from pre-pandemic levels, economic participation already deteriorated and stayed at a comparably low level in 2021.

The index recovered in 2022, but regressed once more this year. While the report has been striving for comparability, the number of continuously surveyed countries has changed slightly between 2018 and 2023 from 106 to 102.