It will take 257 years for women to have all of the same economic opportunities as men, new study says
- Women around the world won't live to see a system that offers them all of the same work opportunities as their male counterparts, according to a new study.
- The World Economic Forum estimated it would take 257 years for the economic gender gap to close.
- The US came in 53rd place for gender equality.
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Women around the world won't live to see a system that offers them all of the same work opportunities as their male counterparts, according to a new study.
In its annual equality study released Tuesday, the World Economic Forum estimated it would take 257 years for the economic gender gap to close. That was a sharp rise from an estimate of 202 years in 2018.
"None of us will see gender parity in our lifetimes, and nor likely will many of our children," the report said.
More broadly, the WEF estimated it would take 99.5 years for the overall gender gap to close. The US came in 53rd place for gender equality. Iceland ranked the highest in the survey for an 11th year, followed by Norway, Finland, Sweden and Nicaragua.
The wider economic gap appeared to be driven by low numbers of women in managerial or leadership positions, wage stagnation, income levels, and labor force participation.
"Our data shows that meaningful action is needed to build the systems and talent pipelines required to close the gender gap in tech and ensure women have an equal role in building the future," said Allen Blue, the vice president of product strategy at LinkedIn, which worked on the analysis with the WEF.
The study analyzed the health, educational, professional and political conditions of 153 countries.
