World at Crossroads: Gender Equality Within Reach but Backlash Threatens Hard-Won Gains

Strategic Insights -

With investments in gender equality, girls are more likely to complete school, and maternal mortality has declined by nearly 40 per cent between 2000 and 2023. However, an unprecedented backlash on women's rights, shrinking civic space, and growing defunding of gender equality initiatives threaten hard-won gains. If current trends continue, the world will reach 2030 with 351 million women and girls still living in extreme poverty. Conflicts are getting deadlier for women and girls, with 676 million living within reach of deadly conflict. Despite these challenges, targeted investments in gender equality have the power to transform societies and economies, with the potential to benefit 343.5 million women and girls, lift 30 million out of poverty by 2050, and generate an estimated USD 1.5 trillion boost to global GDP by 2030.

Key Takeaways:

  • The world is at a crossroads, with investments in gender equality within reach, but an unprecedented backlash on women's rights threatens hard-won gains.
  • Girls are now more likely to complete school than ever before, with maternal mortality declining by nearly 40 per cent between 2000 and 2023.
  • Rates of intimate partner violence are 2.5 times lower in countries with comprehensive measures on violence compared to those with weak protections.
  • Women's leadership in climate talks has doubled, with a potential to generate an estimated USD 1.5 trillion boost to global GDP by 2030.
  • The Gender Snapshot report tracks progress for women and girls across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and highlights the need for accelerated action and interventions focused on care, education, the green economy, labour markets, and social protection.
  • The report emphasizes the importance of prioritizing gender equality and investing in the areas that have the potential to capture the greatest benefits, including the green economy and reducing the number of women and girls in extreme poverty by 110 million by 2050.
  • The Beijing+30 Action Agenda provides a clear path forward towards rights, equality, and empowerment for all women and girls, identifying six priority areas for accelerated implementation: freedom from poverty, zero violence, equal power and leadership, climate justice, peace and security, and full participation in the digital revolution.
  • The report highlights the voices of young women and girls as a critical part of the solution, emphasizing the need for a world where women's rights are delivered at scale and the returns are shared by all.

Statistics:

  • 99 new or reformed laws have been passed to eliminate discrimination over the past five years.
  • 676 million women and girls live within reach of deadly conflict, the highest recorded since the 1990s.
  • 64 million more female adults were moderately or severely food insecure than male adults in 2024.
  • The world is on track to miss every single indicator under SDG5, the gender equality goal, with five years left to achieve the SDGs.
  • Closing the gender digital divide could benefit 343.5 million women and girls, lift 30 million out of poverty by 2050, and generate an estimated USD 1.5 trillion boost to global GDP by 2030.
  • The cumulative economic returns of accelerating action on gender equality could be an estimated USD 342 trillion by 2050.

Sources:

  • United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)
  • UN Women and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) - Gender Snapshot 2025 report
  • Sima Bahous, UN Women Executive Director
  • Li Junhua, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs
  • Beijing+30 Action Agenda
  • United Nations Charter
  • 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
  • Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)