Global Agenda Closing the Economic Gender Gap

The World Economic Forum's Gender Parity Task Forces in Turkey, Japan, Mexico, and Korea aimed to integrate more women into the economy by addressing structural and cultural barriers. The report finds that while educational gaps have narrowed, economic participation lags, particularly in senior management. The task force model emphasizes the necessity of combining government policy with private sector action, using measurable targets and shared best practices to drive progress. Each country showed specific gains: Turkey narrowed its economic participation gap by 10.8%, Japan saw a 6.2% reduction, and Korea experienced a 9% narrowing in its first year. The report concludes with strategic recommendations for scaling the model, focusing on the 'economic case' for parity and targeting growth industries associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

• Despite a narrow educational attainment gap of 5%, the global economic participation and opportunity gap remains approximately 40%, with a gender gap in senior management roles exceeding 70%.
• The Turkey Gender Parity Task Force exceeded its goal of narrowing the economic gender gap by 10% over three years, achieving a reduction of 10.8% relative to its starting point.
• In Japan, the economic gender gap narrowed by 6.2% since 2012, and the female labour force participation gap improved by 11% between 2014 and 2015.
• Mexico experienced a small positive shift of 1.3% in its economic gender gap between 2012 and 2015, though it remains the lowest-ranked country in its region for Economic Participation and Opportunity with less than 55% of the gap closed.
• The Korea Gender Parity Task Force saw the economic gender gap narrow by 9% in its first year (2014), a rate of progress more than 10 times faster than the period prior to 2014.
• The task force model is most effective for countries with high female educational attainment but low economic participation, as they have an untapped talent pool that can generate high economic returns.
• A critical barrier to progress in Japan and Mexico is workplace culture, specifically the challenge of balancing caring roles with a culture of long hours and traditional expectations of female roles.
• The report identifies six key lessons for future task forces: communicating the economic case, defining early objectives, using measurable tracking, structuring for political/business cycles, building a broad stakeholder base, and encouraging sector-level collaboration.
• Future gender parity efforts should target growth industries associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution to ensure sustained progress.

APA

World Economic Forum (2016). Global Agenda Closing the Economic Gender Gap. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_2016_Closing_the_Economic_Gender_Gap.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Global Agenda Closing the Economic Gender Gap. 2016. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_2016_Closing_the_Economic_Gender_Gap.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Global Agenda Closing the Economic Gender Gap |date=June 2016 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_2016_Closing_the_Economic_Gender_Gap.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2016global, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Global Agenda Closing the Economic Gender Gap}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2016}, month = jun, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_2016_Closing_the_Economic_Gender_Gap.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }