One in three institutions set up to advance gender equality has had its power weakened in the past two years, according to UN Women and UN DESA.
The Gender Snapshot 2026 report says not one target under the Sustainable Development Goal on gender equality is on track to be met by 2030.
Funding for gender equality has fallen to its lowest level since 2021, with funding to women’s rights organisations down 28% between 2023 and 2024.
The report says women remain excluded from key centres of power, with men leading six in seven countries and holding most defence, finance, corporate and judicial leadership roles.
One in three institutions set up to advance gender equality has had its power weakened in the past two years, as the world faces a “political retreat” from women’s rights, according to a new United Nations report.
The Gender Snapshot 2026, released by UN Women and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs on September 17, 2026, said that decades of progress on gender equality are being stalled or reversed at a time when no target under the UN-mandated Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on gender equality is on track to be met by 2030.
The report says around one in four institutional mechanisms for gender equality has had its operating budget cut over the past two years, while nearly one in 10 has lost control of its budget altogether.
Funding for gender equality has fallen to its lowest level since 2021, with women’s rights organisations among the worst affected, the report says. Bilateral aid with gender equality objectives fell by 13 per cent between 2023 and 2024, while funding to women’s rights organisations fell by 28 per cent over the same period.
The report also found that 42 per cent of UN entities reported a weakening of their gender equality efforts amid funding cuts.
“The evidence is clear: when women lead, societies are stronger, economies are more resilient and outcomes are better for everyone,” said UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous.
But she said equality could not be achieved while power remained concentrated in institutions that excluded women. “Equality without power is not equality at all,” she said.
The report said political power remains overwhelmingly held by men. Six in seven countries are led by men, while women hold 27.4 per cent of seats in national parliaments in 2026, up from 22.3 per cent in 2015.
Women’s representation in local government has stagnated at 35.6 per cent since 2023. Close to nine in 10 defence ministers and more than eight in 10 finance ministers are men, the report says.
Women also face barriers before they enter politics. The cost of running for office can exceed 100 times a country’s average per-capita income, the report says, while in some countries as many as eight in 10 women candidates face violence in public life.
The pattern extends beyond government. Women hold only 6 per cent of corporate chief executive positions globally and lead fewer than 20 per cent of the highest courts, leaving decisions shaping business, law, employment and the global economy largely in the hands of men, according to the report.
Li Junhua, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, said current rates of progress meant gender equality remained 171 years away. He said this was “not inevitable” but the result of policy choices made visible through data.
Across the SDGs, the report presents a stark picture. In 2024, 9.9 per cent of women lived in extreme poverty, compared with 9.5 per cent of men. At the current pace, 1.1 billion women and girls could still be food insecure by 2030, while closing gender gaps in agricultural productivity could lift 45 million people out of food insecurity.
Women and girls also continue to bear a disproportionate unpaid care burden, spending 2.5 times more hours than men on unpaid domestic and care work.
Violence against women remains widespread. Nearly one in three women globally has experienced partner or sexual violence in her lifetime, the report says. In the past 12 months alone, 316 million women experienced physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner.
The report also says nearly one in five girls is married before the age of 18, while an estimated 230 million women and girls worldwide are survivors of female genital mutilation.
Technology and climate are emerging as major areas of inequality. Women account for about 22 per cent of AI professionals globally and fewer than 14 per cent of senior AI leadership positions. Some 2.9 billion women and girls live in countries highly or very highly exposed to climate change and geophysical hazards, while women hold only 27 per cent of national cabinet posts with environmental portfolios.
UN Women and UN DESA released the report as world leaders prepare for the 81st session of the UN General Assembly and as the UN moves towards selecting its tenth Secretary-General — a role no woman has held in the organisation’s 80-year history.
The agencies called for the political retreat on gender equality to be reversed, including by properly funding gender equality institutions, protecting women’s rights organisations and ensuring women have equal power in decisions on economies, peace and security, technology and public life.