Women's Rights Around the World: Where We Stand

The status of women worldwide ranges from near-complete equality in Scandinavian countries to critical rights violations in parts of the Middle East and Africa. Iceland has topped the Global Gender Gap Index for 14 consecutive years: the law requires companies to prove equal pay, parental leave is split equally between parents, and women's representation in parliament exceeds 40%.

In India, the situation is contradictory. The constitution guarantees equality, but in practice millions of girls are subjected to child marriage, dowry remains a widespread practice, and domestic violence often goes unprosecuted. Yet India produced the world's first female prime minister and has one of the highest shares of women in the technology sector.

In Afghanistan, following the Taliban's return in 2021, women were stripped of access to secondary and higher education, barred from working in most fields, prohibited from leaving home without male accompaniment, and banned from parks and gyms. The UN has called this "gender apartheid." The contrast with the 1970s, when Afghan women attended universities and worked as doctors and engineers, is striking.

Russia ranks 81st on the Global Gender Gap Index. Despite high levels of female education and labor force participation, the country still maintains a list of professions prohibited for women, and the domestic violence law was decriminalized in 2017. Women's rights are not an abstraction but concrete laws and practices that determine the lives of billions of people.