Gender inequality is not only a pressing moral and social issue but also a critical economic challenge. If women—who account for half the world’s population—do not achieve their full economic potential, the global economy will suffer.

While all types of inequality have economic consequences, in this research, we focus on the economic implications of lack of parity between men and women. Even after decades of progress toward making women equal partners with men in the economy and society, the gap between them remains large. We acknowledge that gender parity in economic outcomes (such as participation in the workforce or presence in leadership positions) is not necessarily a normative ideal as it involves human beings making personal choices about the lives they lead; we also recognize that men can be disadvantaged relative to women in some instances. However, we believe that the world, including the private sector, would benefit by focusing on the large economic opportunity of improving parity between men and women.

In this report, MGI explores the economic potential available if the global gender gap were to be closed. The research finds that, in a full-potential scenario in which women play an identical role in labor markets to men’s, as much as $28 trillion, or 26 percent, could be added to global annual GDP in 2025. This estimate is double that of other studies’ estimations, reflecting the fact that MGI has taken a more comprehensive view of gender inequality in work.

Attaining parity in the world of work is not realistic in the short term. Doing so would imply not only the reduction of formidable barriers and change in social attitudes but also personal choices about how to allocate time between domestic and market-based work. However, if all countries were to match the progress toward gender parity of the best performer in their region, it could produce a boost to annual global GDP of as much as $12 trillion in 2025. This would double the GDP growth contributed by female workers in the business-as-usual- scenario.

Our analysis maps 15 gender equality indicators for 95 countries that are home to
93 percent of the world’s female population and generate 97 percent of global GDP. It finds that 40 of the 95 countries have extremely high or high levels of inequality on half or more of the 15 indicators. These indicators cover not only gender equality in work but also physical, social, political, and legal gender equality. We believe that this is the most comprehensive mapping of gender equality to date. And, for the first time, we have established a clear link between gender equality in society and in work through a new MGI tool called the Gender Parity Score, or GPS, which gives us a view of the distance that individual countries have traveled toward gender parity. Realizing the economic prize of gender parity requires the world to address fundamental drivers of the gap in work equality, such as education, health, connectivity, security, and the role of women in unpaid work.

To help policy makers, business leaders, and other stakeholders prioritize action in a global effort to close the gender gap, MGI has also identified ten impact zones of gender inequality. Across the impact zones, this report offers a six-part framework of types of intervention that are most likely to deliver change, and it discusses some of the factors that have made gender initiatives around the world successful, as well as the private sector’s opportunity to take the lead in defining initiatives.