Subscribe
UN Women report warns gender equality remains “unfinished business”
Corporate action expanding but progress modest, uneven and poorly reported
Women hold just 30% of managerial roles, face 20% wage gap and higher harassment risks
Closing gender digital divide could benefit 343 million women and add $1.5 trillion by 2030
Global gender parity could unlock $342 trillion in economic gains by 2050
Gender equality remains the world’s “unfinished business” and the private sector must play a decisive role in closing the gap, a new UN Women report has warned.
The study, Unfinished Business: Private Sector and Gender Equality – Transforming Corporate Commitments into Equality for All Women and Girls, drew on data from thousands of companies across 117 countries. It found that while corporate action on gender equality is expanding, progress is modest, uneven and often poorly reported.
“This is a make-or-break moment,” said Kirsi Madi, UN Women’s deputy executive director, in a statement. “Businesses cannot afford to treat gender equality as optional.”
The report highlighted both advances and persistent failings. Legal reforms are driving progress in areas such as pay transparency, diversity and safer workplaces and companies with mixed-gender leadership are shown to be 25 per cent more profitable. Achieving gender parity globally could add an estimated $342 trillion to the economy by 2050.
Further, closing the gender digital divide alone could benefit 343.5 million women and, by 2030, add an estimated $1.5 trillion to the global economy, with cumulative gains reaching $100 trillion by mid-century.
Yet the data reveals major gender disparities: Women account for just 39 per cent of the global workforce and hold only 30 per cent of managerial roles. They remain concentrated in lower-paid jobs, face a persistent wage gap of around 20 per cent, and are more likely to experience workplace harassment. Unpaid care work also continues to exclude millions from the labour force, while digital and leadership gaps remain entrenched.
The costs of inaction are severe. Gender inequality in lifetime earnings is estimated to have wiped out $160 trillion in global wealth. “Every delay deepens economic losses, weakens social stability, and undermines the future we promised,” the report warned.
The report sets out clear priorities for businesses.
Provide decent work and living wages and expand opportunities for women.
Aim for gender parity in the workforce and recruit women into underrepresented roles.
Ensure equal pay for equal work.
Adopt gender-responsive and family-friendly workplace policies.
Enforce zero-tolerance for harassment and extend protections through robust grievance mechanisms, including across supply chains.
Strive for parity in leadership and strengthen promotion pipelines.
Build gender-responsive supply chains and source more from women-owned businesses.
Help close the digital divide by investing in women’s connectivity, skills and equitable access to technology.
Examples of progress are also emerging, from gender-responsive supply chains in Bolivia to care accelerators in Canada, the report said. Laws on pay transparency and board quotas have also shown impact. Yet voluntary commitments, the report notes, are insufficient without enforcement, data and accountability.
UN Women called for urgent, enforceable action; governments must legislate and align incentives, businesses must embed equality in core strategies and investors and regulators must make gender indicators mandatory in sustainability reporting, it said. Companies have to move from voluntary pledges to measurable outcomes, it underlined.
“Historical change is within reach, but no single actor can close gender gaps alone,” Madi concluded. “We must all act together, now, to close the gap between commitment and actual outcomes.”