Bangladesh slips 55 notches in global gender equality ranking
Bangladesh Falls Sharply in 2026 Global Gender Gap Index
Bdbusinessdaily.com – Bangladesh has experienced the largest decline among the 145 economies assessed in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index 2026, dropping 55 positions to 79th place. The result reverses a dramatic improvement recorded a year earlier, when the country rose 75 places from 99th to 24th in the 2025 index.
The country has now closed 71.2% of its overall gender gap, compared with 77.5% in the previous year. That 6.2-percentage-point reduction in its score was driven primarily by a substantial weakening in political empowerment, which declined by 21.2 percentage points.
Even with the fall in the global table, Bangladesh remains the highest-ranked country in South Asia for gender equality. It has held the regional lead for 12 consecutive years, having moved ahead of Sri Lanka in 2014.
Political representation drives the setback
Political empowerment was the principal factor behind Bangladesh’s poorer 2026 result. The country placed 12th worldwide in this category, with gender parity measured at 50.9%. While that remains a comparatively strong international position, it marks a steep retreat from third place in the prior year.
Women’s representation in parliament reached its lowest point during the period measured by the index, with parliamentary parity at 2.4%. Representation among ministers and directly elected members of parliament also declined.
Fahmida Khatun, Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue, said Bangladesh had long maintained a visible female presence in political life, including in the offices of prime minister and parliamentary speaker, as well as among directly elected lawmakers.
“However, the data used in the 2026 index show that women's political participation has declined from previous years. The share of women among directly elected MPs has fallen as has their representation among ministers,” she said.
“This has weakened Bangladesh's performance in political empowerment”.
Bangladesh has nevertheless retained complete parity on the index’s head-of-state measure since 2019. The report noted that 64 of the 145 economies had no female head of state during the period covered, while Bangladesh and Iceland achieved parity on this indicator.
Economic opportunity remains the largest challenge
Economic Participation and Opportunity continues to be Bangladesh’s weakest area in the index. In 2026, the country closed 41.9% of the gender gap in this category, down from 45.7% a year earlier.
The lower score reflected weaker parity in estimated earned income, labour-force participation and senior workforce leadership. These indicators declined by 15 percentage points, 5.7 percentage points and 1.3 percentage points respectively.
The figures underline the difference between formal progress in education and the ability of women to translate qualifications into equal access to income, employment and leadership roles. Economic participation is one of the four broad measures used to assess gender gaps, alongside education, health and political empowerment.
The index covers 14 indicators in total. Its purpose is to compare the relative gaps faced by women and men rather than to measure a country’s overall level of development. A higher parity score indicates a narrower gender gap within the relevant area.
Education and health offer more positive results
Bangladesh’s performance in education remained comparatively strong. Educational attainment reached a record parity score of 96.1%, continuing a positive trend over the index’s 20-year history. Improvements in adult literacy and tertiary enrolment contributed to the gain.
The country has maintained parity in primary and secondary school enrolment. Higher education remains the largest remaining education gap, where parity stands at 77.1%.
Health and Survival held steady at 96% parity. Progress in areas such as maternal and child mortality has helped support Bangladesh’s stronger regional standing, alongside relatively better gender balance in primary and secondary education.
These results show that Bangladesh’s 2026 decline was not uniform across every aspect of gender equality. Instead, the sharp movement in the overall ranking reflects how strongly political and economic measures affected the country’s position during this assessment period.
South Asia’s Gender Gap Progress Remains Slow
South Asia closed 64.5% of its overall gender gap in 2026, placing seventh among the world’s eight regions. Its score slipped by 0.1 percentage points from the preceding year.
Since the Global Gender Gap Index began, the region has narrowed its gap by 4.8 percentage points. At its current rate of improvement, full gender parity in South Asia is projected to take 149 years.
Bangladesh remained the regional leader despite its global ranking decline. Maldives was placed 119th with 66.9% parity, followed by Nepal in 120th place with the same score. Bhutan ranked 121st with 66.3%, Sri Lanka was 129th with 64.6%, and India stood 131st with 64.5%.
Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka improved their positions in the global ranking. Bhutan moved down, while India’s ranking did not change. Pakistan remained South Asia’s least gender-equal country and the third-lowest ranked worldwide, closing 59.5% of its gender gap despite gaining five places from 2025.
For Bangladesh, the latest result preserves regional leadership but highlights the importance of sustaining women’s representation in elected office, ministerial roles, workplaces and senior leadership. The country’s gains in schooling and health remain significant, yet the index indicates that progress across those areas alone cannot offset setbacks in political participation and economic opportunity.
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