• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
MPWMost Powerful Women

It’ll Take 217 Years for Women To Achieve Equality in the Workplace

Claire Zillman
By
Claire Zillman
Claire Zillman
Editor, Leadership
Down Arrow Button Icon
Claire Zillman
By
Claire Zillman
Claire Zillman
Editor, Leadership
Down Arrow Button Icon
November 2, 2017, 12:59 PM ET

If the recent string of sexual harassment allegations against high-powered men is any indication, women have a long way to go before achieving equal treatment in the workplace. On Thursday, the World Economic Forum pegged a specific time frame to solving the problem, and ladies, it’s going to be a slog: 217 years.

The new WEF report on the global gender gap takes into account women’s economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment as compared to men’s. It found that it’ll take exactly 100 years to close the gap across all four factors in the 106 nations included in the report since its inception—17 years longer than last year’s estimate.

But taking into account only women’s economic deficiency, it’ll take even longer—217 years. That’s because rather than shrinking, the economic gender gap—which considers women’s labor force participation, wage equality, and professional leadership—continues to widen. In fact, progress on this front reverted back to its 2008 level this year, after peaking in 2013.

Not a single country has fully closed its economic gender gap, though 13 have come close, narrowing it 80% or more, according to WEF. The small African nation of Burundi is the top performer by this measure, having closed 91% of its economic gender gap. Barbados, the Bahamas, and Benin are second (88%), third (87%), and fourth (86%) respectively. By comparison, the U.S. is ranked 19th, having narrowed its gap 78%.

Subscribe to The Broadsheet, Fortune’s newsletter on powerful women.

On average, nations had closed 58% of their economic gender gaps in 2017, down from 59% in both 2016 and 2015.

The report offers a few clues as to why the women’s economic disadvantage is getting worse. While global labor force participation is declining for both men and women, the dip has been especially steep for women. At the same time, earned income is on the rise for both sexes, but it’s been especially sharp for men, “suggesting that the growth in prosperity is not equitably distributed along gender lines,” the report says. Plus, women remain underrepresented in senior positions in the public sector and in business: This year, women accounted for just 22% of senior managerial positions.

Courtesy of WEF.

The report provides a major incentive to increase efforts on the gender equality front: There’s a ton of money on the line. Closing the economic participation gender gap 25% by 2025 could add some $5.3 trillion to the world GDP. The U.S. alone could see an extra $1.75 trillion by achieving economic gender parity. Those figures, the report says, suggest “the potential self-financing effects of additional public investment into closing global gender gaps.”

About the Author
Claire Zillman
By Claire ZillmanEditor, Leadership
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon

Claire Zillman is a senior editor at Fortune, overseeing leadership stories. 

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in MPW

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
Fortune Secondary Logo
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in MPW

MagazineVictoria's Secret
How Victoria’s Secret got its sexy back
By Emma HinchliffeFebruary 4, 2026
30 days ago
Workplace CultureSports
Exclusive: Billionaire Michele Kang launches $25 million U.S. Soccer institute that promises to transform the future of women’s sports
By Emma HinchliffeDecember 2, 2025
3 months ago
C-SuiteLeadership Next
Ulta Beauty CEO Kecia Steelman says she has the best job ever: ‘My job is to help make people feel really good about themselves’
By Fortune EditorsNovember 5, 2025
4 months ago
ConferencesMPW Summit
Executives at DoorDash, Airbnb, Sephora and ServiceNow agree: leaders need to be agile—and be a ‘swan’ on the pond
By Preston ForeOctober 21, 2025
5 months ago
Jessica Wu, co-founder and CEO of Sola, at Fortune MPW 2025
MPW
Experts say the high failure rate in AI adoption isn’t a bug, but a feature: ‘Has anybody ever started to ride a bike on the first try?’
By Dave SmithOctober 21, 2025
5 months ago
Jamie Dimon with his hand up at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit
SuccessProductivity
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says if you check your email in meetings, he’ll tell you to close it: ’it’s disrespectful’
By Preston ForeOctober 17, 2025
5 months ago

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Health
Palantir and other tech companies are stocking offices with nicotine products to increase worker productivity
By Catherina GioinoMarch 4, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Uber CEO says his ‘really demanding’ work culture includes expecting employees to answer his emails over the weekend: ‘Don’t come here if you want to coast’
By Emma BurleighMarch 4, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Newsletters
The Iran war is giving rise to a centuries-old economic theory—and laying waste to the WTO-based world order
By Diane BradyMarch 5, 2026
22 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
Trump's loss of $1.7 trillion in tariff revenue will send the national debt to $58 trillion by 2036, think tank projects
By Nick LichtenbergMarch 5, 2026
16 hours ago
placeholder alt text
AI
OpenAI investor Vinod Khosla predicts today’s 5-year-olds won’t ever need to get jobs thanks to AI
By Sasha RogelbergMarch 4, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Tech investor Bill Gurley says workers who went through the ‘college conveyor belt’ and chased safe jobs are at high risk of AI automation
By Emma BurleighMarch 3, 2026
3 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.