A New Report by UN Women The paths to equal: Twin indices on women’s empowerment and gender equality

Key findings
• Globally, women are empowered to achieve, on average, only 60 percent of their full potential, as measured by the WEI and achieve, on average, 28 percent less than men across key human development dimensions, as measured by the GGPI.
• None of the 114 countries analyzed has achieved full women’s empowerment or complete gender parity. Moreover, less than 1 percent of women and girls live in countries with both high women’s empowerment and high performance in achieving gender parity.
• 3.1 billion Women and girls—more than 90 percent of the world’s female population—live in countries characterized by low or middle women’s empowerment and low or middle performance in achieving gender parity.
• About 8 percent of women and girls live in countries with low or middle women’s empowerment but high performance in achieving gender parity. This suggests that small gender gaps do not automatically translate into high women’s empowerment.
• No country has achieved high women’s empowerment while maintaining a large gender gap. This suggests that women’s and girls’ empowerment will remain elusive until gender gaps are eliminated.
• Higher human development alone is insufficient to empower women and girls and bring about gender equality. Of the 114 countries analyzed, 85 have low or middle women’s empowerment and low or middle performance in achieving gender parity. More than half the countries in this group are in the high (21 countries) or very high human development group (26 countries), signifying that higher human development does not automatically translate into women’s empowerment and gender equality.
• The WEI and GGPI offer different but complementary lenses for assessing progress in advancing women’s human development, power, and freedoms. In isolation, each provides only a partial picture of progress. Together they shed light on the complex challenges faced by women worldwide and pave the way for targeted interventions and policy reforms.