When women lead, economies leap: Gender parity lessons from around the world

In 2025, the world is still 123 years away from achieving full gender parity. That number, while daunting, marks more than a decade of progress in a single year. Nearly 70% of the global gender gap is now closed – the highest level since the pandemic, according to the World Economic Forum’s latest Global Gender Gap Report. And within this fragile progress lies a powerful insight: Gender equity isn’t a moral accessory to economic recovery, it’s the engine.

Countries that unlock the full talent of their populations – not just half – position themselves to lead in resilience, productivity and innovation. From Iceland, the world’s most gender-equal country for 16 years running, to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has rapidly climbed into the top 70 global performers, we’re seeing evidence that when women lead, economies leap.

Progress is not automatic, however. No country has yet reached full parity. But some are accelerating faster than others by pulling three distinct and replicable power levers: political quotas, corporate board representation and artificial intelligence (AI) skills pathways.

Many countries have used each of these three strategies and found that the entire system benefits when women have real seats at the table – from cabinet meetings to code reviews. And when these levers are pulled intentionally and together, they translate into measurable economic returns: higher GDP, stronger labour participation and more inclusive growth.

The largest gender gaps remain in terms of power, not potential. Political empowerment continues to lag behind every other dimension, with women holding just 27.1% of parliamentary seats and 22.9% of ministerial positions globally. Quotas offer a proven way to fast-track parity.

Take Rwanda, which implemented a 30% quota for women in parliament in its 2003 Constitution. As of 2024, women make up 61.3% of its parliamentary seats and 55% of ministerial positions – the highest in the world. This kind of critical mass reshapes governance priorities, often directing national focus toward health, education and social welfare. Higher female political participation also correlates with more stable growth and inclusive social outcomes.

Other countries have taken notice. Mexico and Nicaragua both mandate that half of all legislative candidates are women and have achieved near-parity chambers, according to the latest Global Gender Gap Report. And in 2019, the UAE issued a presidential directive that half of its Federal National Council must be women. Representation jumped from 22% to 50% in one election cycle, elevating its political empowerment ranking in the Global Gender Gap Report from 75th to 32nd in the world in just five years.

The report also shows transformation in the UK, which currently has a gender-balanced Cabinet for the first time – up from 24% women in 2019 to nearly 50% after the last election. This contributed to the UK’s leap from 14th to fourth in the overall gender parity rankings, the biggest jump among advanced economies.

Quotas aren’t permanent fixes, but they are catalytic tools. They break logjams and accelerate equity in systems where historic exclusion persists. More than 130 countries now use some form of gender quota for public office. Where quotas are applied, women’s representation improves – along with policy outcomes including paid family leave and childcare, and in some cases public trust in government also increases.

Just as political quotas open doors to legislative power, board representation mandates can crack open the highest levels of corporate leadership. Women comprise 40.2% of the global workforce, yet hold only 28.8% of management roles. The gap narrows only with intentional action.

In Norway, the first country to mandate 40% female board representation, women’s board seats jumped from 17% to 40% in just three years. Today, Norway and France both hover at near parity on boards – and neither has seen a drop in company performance. On the contrary, studies consistently show that companies with more women in leadership outperform on return on equity and crisis resilience.

Not all progress requires legislation. The UK’s voluntary Hampton-Alexander Review set targets – not mandates – that paved the way for FTSE 100 boards to reach 40% women by 2022. But mandates remain a powerful accelerant.

Consider the UAE, which required all publicly listed firms to have at least one woman on their boards starting in 2021. In just two years, female board representation jumped from 3.5% to 8.9%. This requirement was extended to large private companies in 2025.

Board representation is not about symbolism, it’s about improving systems. Women in governance roles influence hiring, pay equity, supply chain decisions and corporate innovation. And when leadership looks more like the customers it serves, a business becomes more agile and successful.

As we enter the AI era, a new gender gap looms – not in boardrooms or parliaments, but in algorithms and engineering labs.

Globally, in 2021, women made up just 32% of AI and data professionals, 20% of engineers and 14% of cloud computing roles. Without intervention, this gap will calcify future inequities and design bias into the technologies that shape our economies and democracies.

Here, again, the UAE offers a compelling countertrend. Women account for 70% of the country's university graduates, many of them in STEM. These women go on to apply their expertise across multiple sectors, from healthcare to environmental sustainability.

This didn’t happen by accident. The UAE’s Gender Balance Council has backed coding bootcamps, AI mentorship programmes and partnerships with non-profits. A powerful example of this strategy: In the 2021 Emirates Mars Mission, 80% of the science team were women. Other nations such as Canada have incorporated gender equity into their national AI strategies too, while Finland's legal infrastructure and national gender equity policies are actively shaping a more inclusive AI workforce.

Closing the digital divide isn’t optional. Some research shows that 92% of future jobs will require digital skills. When women are excluded, economies lose access to half their innovation potential. When women are included, AI becomes more inclusive and impactful.

We’re living through a global economic recalibration. The post-pandemic recovery, AI disruption and climate migration are all reshaping labour markets and testing social systems. In these moments of flux, parity isn’t a luxury, it’s a lever.

Top gender-parity countries like Iceland consistently outperform in innovation and competitiveness. Fast-climbers like the UAE show that progress is possible at speed and scale when political will aligns with policy design. And nations that invest in gender equity today – through quotas, corporate mandates and digital inclusion – are planting the seeds for long-term prosperity.

This is not about checking boxes, it’s about changing outcomes. When women hold power, they don’t just replicate the status quo, they redesign it. And that redesign brings measurable returns: stronger GDP, better governance and more inclusive innovation.

The message is clear. If you want your economy to leap forward, let women lead.