U.N. report: Gender-equality progress remains too slow worldwide

A United Nations assessment released July 7 says global progress toward gender equality is continuing but too slowly and unevenly to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal without faster action.

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 and its Goal 5 update measure women’s representation in politics and management, reported decision-making power over reproductive health, violence, legal reform, land rights and gender-responsive public financing. The findings show gains in several areas, but persistent barriers continue to limit women’s safety, autonomy, economic mobility and influence over public decisions.

Women’s political representation is barely moving

As of January 1, 2026, women held 27.4% of seats in lower or single chambers of national parliaments worldwide. That was an increase of 0.2 percentage points from 2025 and 5.1 points from 2015.

Only seven countries had at least 50% women in their national parliaments. Three countries had no women representatives, and women made up less than 10% of parliamentarians in 18 countries.

The figure is corroborated by the 2026 women-in-politics data from UN Women and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which also describes women as persistently underrepresented in national political decision-making. The parliamentary measure should not be confused with local-government representation, which the U.N. reports separately at 35.6% in 2025.

Leadership gaps extend into the workplace

Women held 30.5% of managerial positions worldwide in 2025, even though they accounted for about 40% of employment. The gap indicates that participation in paid work is not translating into equal access to workplace authority, promotion or economic decision-making.

Women’s share of management positions rose 3.6 percentage points from 2015 to 2025. The U.N. says that, at that pace, equal representation in management would remain more than 50 years away.

Bodily autonomy and safety remain major gaps

In data covering 78 countries, 56.3% of women ages 15 to 49 who were married or in a union reported full decision-making power across three areas: contraception, sexual relations and reproductive health care.

This is not an estimate for all women worldwide. It reflects the available 78-country dataset and the specific population measured. The regional disparity was wide: 87.2% of women in Europe and Northern America reported decision-making ability across all three areas, compared with 36.8% in sub-Saharan Africa. The U.N. also reports lower levels of autonomy among some younger, rural, less-educated and poorer populations.

Violence remains a persistent global crisis. Based on 2023 estimates, nearly one in three women—about 840 million—has experienced physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence by a non-partner during her lifetime. The estimate is based on 2023 data and is not a new 2026 count.

Legal reforms have advanced, but rights remain incomplete

The report records 99 legal reforms strengthening gender equality between 2019 and 2025. The reforms addressed areas including domestic violence, rape, child marriage and restrictions on women’s employment.

The reforms have not eliminated discriminatory laws. Among 131 countries with data, only 44% prohibited both direct and indirect discrimination. Only 38% had consent-based rape laws that explicitly criminalized marital rape, and just 23% set the minimum marriage age at 18 without exceptions.

Land rights also remain insecure. In 68 of 78 countries with data, fewer than half of women in agricultural households reported owning or holding secure rights to agricultural land. The U.N. says stronger legal protections and more consistent implementation are both needed to turn formal rights into secure ownership and economic opportunity.

Budgets show whether commitments are implemented

In 2025, 123 countries used elements of gender-responsive budgeting, up from 69 in 2018. But only one in four of those countries had comprehensive systems to track and publicly disclose gender-equality allocations.

The measure concerns budgeting and transparency systems; it does not mean that spending guarantees equal outcomes. Without reliable tracking and public disclosure, governments and residents have less ability to determine whether gender-equality commitments are being funded and implemented.

With less than four years remaining before the 2030 deadline, the U.N. assessment puts the next test on governments: accelerate legal reform, improve enforcement, expand health and safety services, strengthen women’s access to leadership and make public financing easier to examine. The report’s central message is that progress remains possible, but existing gains are not moving quickly enough.

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