UN’s Gender Snapshot 2025 warns that progress on equality is stalling, with 376 million women still living in extreme poverty and digital exclusion widening the gap

Reducing the gender digital divide could lift 30 million women out of poverty, strengthen climate resilience and add USD 1.5 trillion to the global economy by 2030, according to the United Nations’ Gender Snapshot 2025 report. Released by UN Women and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the study warns that slowing progress on gender equality is undermining inclusive and sustainable development across key global goals.

“Gender equality is not an ideology. It is foundational for peace, development and human rights,” said Papa Seck, Chief of the Research and Data Section, who led the study.

The report finds that as of 2025, 376 million women and girls live in extreme poverty-9.2 per cent of their population compared with 8.6 per cent of men and boys. At the current rate, 351 million women will remain below the USD 2.15-a-day threshold in 2030, with sub-Saharan Africa bearing the heaviest toll at 233 million.

Food insecurity continues to hit women harder. In 2024, 822 million women faced moderate or severe food insecurity, compared with 759 million men. Anaemia among women of reproductive age is projected to rise to 33 per cent by 2030, up from 31.1 per cent today, costing Southern Asia alone USD 32.5 billion annually.

Globally, 70 per cent of men use the internet compared with 65 per cent of women. In the least-developed countries, fewer than one in three women have access. Closing this gap could benefit 343.5 million women and girls by 2050, almost half of them in Africa.

The economic payoff is substantial. Digital inclusion could generate USD 1.5 trillion in additional global GDP by 2030 and USD 100 trillion cumulatively by 2050. It would also improve food security for 42 million women by mid-century. Rwanda and Costa Rica are cited as examples of countries where targeted digital policies have expanded access and training.

Despite comprising 40 per cent of the global labour force, women will account for only 29 per cent of projected workforce growth between 2024 and 2026. Generative artificial intelligence compounds this imbalance, with 27.6 per cent of women’s jobs exposed to automation compared with 21.1 per cent of men’s. Clerical work where women are concentrated is particularly vulnerable.

Unpaid care remains a barrier to participation. Women perform 2.5 times more domestic and care work than men, keeping an estimated 708 million out of the labour force. In Northern Africa and Western Asia, women spend more than four times as many hours as men on unpaid care.

One in eight women aged 15-49 reported physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner in the past year. While the share of young women married before 18 has declined from 22 per cent in 2014 to 19 per cent today the practice persists. Female genital mutilation continues to affect 4 million girls annually, more than half before the age of five.

Representation in power remains limited. Women hold 27.2 per cent of parliamentary seats and 30 per cent of managerial positions, with parity in management projected to take nearly a century at the current pace. Local government representation stagnated at 35.5 per cent in 2024, while 102 countries have never had a woman head of state or government.

The study warns that climate change could push up to 158 million more women into extreme poverty by 2050, nearly half in sub-Saharan Africa. Conflict also exacts a disproportionate toll, with 676 million women and girls living within 50 kilometres of deadly violence in 2024, the highest figure since the 1990s.

With the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action approaching, the UN report urges governments to scale up investments in poverty reduction, digital inclusion, healthcare, education and climate resilience.

“We are at a crossroads,” Seck said. “Systemic neglect and stalled investments will lock in inequality, but decisive action can reverse course.”