Syllabus: 

GS-1: Social empowerment

GS-2: Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate. 

Context: 

The Gender Snapshot Report 2025 warns that global gender equality is stalling, and without urgent action, millions of women and girls will stay in poverty, face violence, and be excluded from decision-making.

About the Report

• It is the latest edition in an annual series produced by UN Women and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA). 
• The report spotlights the latest data and evidence on gender equality, track covering all 17 goals. 

Key Findings

Poverty & Food Insecurity: 

• Female extreme poverty rate has been stuck at about 10% since 2020. If trends continue, over 351 million women and girls will still live in extreme poverty by 2030. 
• 64 million more women than men were food insecure in 2024.

Health & Education Gains, but Slower than Needed:

• Maternal mortality has fallen nearly 40% since 2000, yet women spend longer in poor health than men.
• Girls now surpass boys in global school enrolment, but gaps persist in Africa and Asia.

Unpaid Work & Labour Participation:  

• Women continue to spend 2.5 times more hours on unpaid domestic care work than men.
• Employment gap remains large in 2024, 46.4% of working-age women were employed compared to about 69.5% of men. 

Violence & Early Marriage:  

• 1 in 8 women aged 15-49 experienced physical or sexual intimate partner violence in the past year. 
• Early marriage slight decline from 22% in 2014 to 18.6% in 2024 among young women. 

Decision-Making & Representation: 

• Women hold about 27.2% of parliamentary seats globally. 
• 102 countries have never had a woman head of state or head of government. 

Digital Divide & Technology: 

• Globally 70% of men use the Internet as compare to 65% of women. 
• Closing this gap alone, the UN estimated, could benefit 343 million women and girls by 2050, lift 30 million out of poverty and boost global gross domestic by $1.5 trillion by 2030.

Emerging Threats: 

• Under a worst-case climate scenario, up to 158 million more women and girls could fall into extreme poverty by 2050. 
• Women’s employment is more exposed to disruption from generative AI than men’s: 27.6% compared with 21.1%. 

Way Forward

• Structural Barriers: For women and girls to escape poverty, structural barriers must be removed, especially social norms that burden them with unpaid care and domestic work.

Regulatory Framework:

• Strong laws, budgets, survivor support, and coordination with civil society are vital to end violence against women and girls and enable transformational change by 2030.
• Structural reforms that include women especially adolescent girls and young women in decision-making, along with protecting civic spaces and strengthening gender equality institutions, can reverse today’s poor representation.

Climate Justice Reforms: Governments should push climate justice reforms by ensuring women’s equal rights to land and resources and boosting their participation in decision-making at all levels.

Sources: 
Downto Earth
Unstats