SDG5 Report: Gender equality

• Women’s leadership is advancing, but parity remains decades away. Women hold 27.4 per cent of parliamentary seats, 35.6 per cent of local government positions and 30.5 per cent of managerial jobs worldwide – all only slight improvements over 2015 levels.

• Despite progress on gender-responsive budgeting and legal reforms, systemic barriers persist. More countries are adopting gender-responsive budgeting, but only one in four has a comprehensive system. Since 2019, 99 legal reforms have advanced women’s rights, but discriminatory laws and barriers to land ownership and secure tenure remain widespread.

• Violence and harmful practices continue to undermine the rights and agency of millions of women and girls. Nearly one in three women has experienced violence in her lifetime, almost half of married or partnered women lack full bodily autonomy, nearly one in five girls still marries before the age of 18 and 230 million girls and women have undergone female genital mutilation. Regional successes, however, show that legal reforms and changing social norms can drive progress.

• Achieving gender equality requires sustained investment in sexual and reproductive health, decisive action to remove discriminatory laws and end harmful practices, stronger women's economic rights and gender-responsive financing, and a transformation of the social norms and institutions that continue to limit women's and girls' opportunities.

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