While tremendous progress has been made in advancing gender equality in recent decades, inequalities persist across educational attainment and skills, paid and unpaid work, leadership, health, violence and other policy areas.
To continue to advance on gender equality, governments need to dismantle traditional policy silos and recognise relationships between policy areas. Gender-based violence, for example, harms educational, employment, leadership and health outcomes. Gender segregation in field of study drives graduates into “men’s” and “women’s” jobs, which contributes to gender gaps in pay, pensions, leadership and representation.
Looking ahead, governments need to not only do better address current gaps but also advance efforts to anticipate and prevent them. Gender should be mainstreamed in policies addressing the evolving green transition and digital transformations, for example.
Pursuing gender equality in a changing world
Gender equality is not only a moral and legal imperative. It is a cornerstone of economic growth in a time of rapid social and economic transformations. While governments and key stakeholders have made tremendous strides in advancing gender equality over past decades, harmful inequalities persist – highlighting the need for renewed commitments and innovative policy actions.
This policy brief summarises key findings of the OECD report Gender Equality in a Changing World: Taking Stock and Moving Forward, written with the support of the European Commission’s Directorate‑General for Justice and Consumers (DG JUST). The report presents a comprehensive stocktaking of gender gaps in education, employment, unpaid work, leadership, health, violence, the green transition and the digital transformation in European Union (EU) and OECD countries. It then provides a detailed analysis of gender mainstreaming and policy combinations to support policy makers as they build the tools and insights necessary for a more gender-equitable future, adopting a life‑cycle and cross-sectoral perspective.
Gender differences in career expectations appear relatively early in life, mirroring occupational segregation in the labour market (Figure 1). Girls are overrepresented among those expecting to work in women-dominated occupations (i.e. personal care, health, teaching) but underrepresented among those expecting to work in men-dominated occupations (i.e. information and communication technologies, trade). Gender gaps in basic skills also appear early, with boys lagging behind girls in reading and girls lagging behind boys in math. Although women now attain higher levels of education than men – partly reflecting perceived differences in labour market opportunities, changes in social norms, as well as educational systems and occupational degree requirements – notable segregation by field of study persists, with women more likely to enter lower-paying fields. Gender gaps in literacy and numeracy evolve over the life course, reflecting gendered use of skills at home, school, and work, itself a product of occupational segregation and gender differences in unpaid care. Women and men report similar levels of participation in adult education and training. Yet among those not in education and training, women are much more likely than men to report unpaid work as a barrier.
Share (%) of 15‑year‑old students reporting career expectations for selected occupations who are girls compared to share (%) of employed persons (15‑64) in selected occupations who are women, EU‑25 countries, 2022
Note: Data refer to unweighted averages across EU countries. Occupations refer to ISCO 08 classifications. See StatLink for more details.
Source: OECD (2025[1]), see Figure 4.3, data available in https://stat.link/6lk825.
Women have lower employment rates than men and spend fewer hours in paid work. Occupational and industrial segregation persist, and the gender pay gap among full-time workers remains a stubborn 11%, on average across OECD countries. Such gaps accumulate throughout the life course, resulting in lower pensions and higher poverty risks for older women. Gender stereotypes and norms around unpaid care are a major factor contributing to gender differences in labour supply, interacting with social, policy and economic environments to disadvantage women. This includes a lack of access to good-quality, affordable childcare and out-of-school care for children and long-term care for relatives; low pay in traditionally women-dominated sectors; the unequal distributions of family leave; and gendered tax-benefit systems that disadvantage second earners, most often women. A descriptive comparison of women with and without dependent children shows that employment gaps have been closing only slowly over time (Figure 2). The result for men shows the opposite – fathers of dependent children fare better than peers without.
Employment rate (%), women and men (25‑54) with or without children (0‑14), OECD‑21, 2006‑21
Note: OECD‑21 is an unweighted average of 21 countries with comparable data between 2006 and 2021. See StatLink for more details.
Source: OECD (2025[1]), see Figure 5.2, data available in https://stat.link/kvf72n.
Gender gaps in expectations of leadership emerge at a young age and foreshadow significant gender gaps in leadership in adulthood. Many factors contribute to women’s underrepresentation, including gender norms and stereotypes, business practices, structural barriers, bias and discrimination, perceptions of abilities and skills, motherhood penalties, and experiences of harassment and discrimination, among others. Women’s underrepresentation is particularly evident at the highest levels of leadership. Indeed, women are underrepresented among board members, CEOs and presidents in the private sector; among legislators at all levels of government (Figure 3); among members of cabinet and ministers; and among country executives (e.g. presidents, prime ministers or chancellors), with evidence of the leaky pipeline across all areas of private sector and public leadership.
Share (%) of members of various levels of government who are women, 2024
Note: EU and OECD averages are unweighted. See StatLink for more details.
Source: OECD (2025[1]), see Figure 6.6, data available in https://stat.link/sozdy0.
Gender inequalities in health are complex. Women tend to live longer than men but spend many of their additional years in poor health. Additionally, women report lower physical and mental health, participate less physical activity and sports, and report poorer experiences of healthcare than men – including unmet healthcare needs and mis- and underdiagnosis. Men engage more in risky behaviours, face higher suicide rates, are more often overweight or obese, and are more reluctant to use preventive medicine. Gender norms and stereotypes around access to and use of healthcare, as well as healthy and health-reducing behaviours among both patients and providers, likely contribute to observed outcomes. Societal expectations of stoicism, for example, may be deterring men from preventive care, while caregiving duties and limited inclusion in healthcare decision-making and research may be restricting women’s access to care and deepening gaps in understanding women’s specific health needs.
Gender-based violence (GBV) is a pervasive problem affecting all people, but most victims/survivors of GBV are women and the majority of perpetrators are men. Women may be exposed to different types of violence (e.g. physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, economic, technology-facilitated) carried out by different types of perpetrators (e.g. intimate partners, family members, friends, colleagues or strangers). Across OECD countries, about one in three ever-partnered women report having experienced intimate partner violence in their lifetime (Figure 4). A similar share of ever-working women report having experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. Many women also feel unsafe while walking alone at night.
Share (%) of ever-partnered women who have experienced violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime, in the last 5 years and in the last 12 months, 2021 or latest
Note: EU and OECD are unweighted averages. See StatLink for more details.
Source: OECD (2025[1]), see Figure 8‑A2, data available in https://stat.link/tr8a47.
The green transition and the digital transformation will affect education, employment, health, safety and more. At the same time, these areas will be influenced by already existing gender gaps. Occupational segregation, for instance, means that the green transition and the digital transformation will have gendered impacts, with women and men experiencing different degrees of change at work and in the labour market and having different capacities to deal with such change. Environmental degradation and climate change can lead to increased morbidity and mortality for both women and men, but gender differences emerge in the extent and nature of such impacts. While opportunities and risks exist for women and girls in digital environments, an important risk relates to technology-facilitated GBV. Under this rapidly evolving landscape, continually improving the availability and accessibility of gender-disaggregated data relating to the green transition and the digital transformation will be crucial for responsive, evidence‑based policy making.
In some OECD and EU countries, good measures supporting gender equality are already in place or are being developed, including a wide range of family and work-life balance policies with important consequences for gender roles and women’s participation in the labour market. Countries have also implemented various interventions to increase gender balance in leadership, enhance pay transparency, and reduce violence against women, among others. Where these programmes are already in place, governments should reaffirm and advance on these commitments to gender equality. These foundational types of gender equality policies should be introduced in places where they are lacking.
Yet there remains significant room for policy to better support gender equality, by both strengthening existing measures and introducing new ones in a co‑ordinated and cross-sectoral manner. Governments can use gender mainstreaming and engage with multiple stakeholders (e.g. different levels of government, private sector, academia, social partners, civil society) to ensure an effective combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches. In order to acknowledge and respond to the interconnected nature of gender issues, governments should additionally focus on building mutually reinforcing policy combinations by dismantling traditional policy silos. For instance, outcomes in educational attainment, paid and unpaid work, and leadership and representation are interwoven with health outcomes and experiences of GBV, yet policy design often looks in isolation at only one or two of these factors. Alongside these actions, efforts should continue to ensure the best possible implementation of existing and new measures, supported by adequate monitoring and evaluation.
Take stock of gender gaps, implement new policies when needed, and reaffirm and advance upon existing commitments related to gender equality. This should consider, at a minimum, education (not least ensuring equitable access to quality learning in education); family, work-life balance and labour force participation (including a more equal distribution of paid and unpaid work; high-quality, affordable access to care for children and older people); pay and pensions; leadership; health; and violence against women.
Continue to close gaps in (intersectional) gender data, research and measurement, in order to support better implementation through monitoring and evaluation of policy action.
Incorporate a gender perspective across all policy processes and areas, including those not traditionally associated with gender equality, to ensure that economies and societies drive innovation by leveraging the diverse talents, perspectives and experiences of all people.
Ensure multi-stakeholder involvement through top-down, bottom-up and cross-sectoral approaches and interventions.
Build policy combinations that break down traditional policy silos, which often fail to capture the interconnected nature of gender issues.
Adopt an intersectional approach, acknowledging the diverse lived experiences of individuals.
For more actions and policy options, see the full report: Gender Equality in a Changing World: Taking Stock and Moving Forward.
Further information
[1] OECD (2025), Gender Equality in a Changing World: Taking Stock and Moving Forward, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/e808086f-en.
Monika QUEISSER (✉ monika.queisser@oecd.org)
Valerie FREY (✉ valerie.frey@oecd.org)
Jasmin THOMAS (✉ jasmin.thomas@oecd.org)
Valentina PATRINI (✉ valentina.patrini@oecd.org)
