Gender Equality at a Crossroads: Assessing SDG 5 Progress in the Shadow of a Global Pandemic

Executive Summary

This report provides a comprehensive assessment of global progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) on Gender Equality, analyzing the pre-pandemic trajectory from 2015 to 2019, the profound and regressive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the current state of recovery. The analysis reveals a stark reality: a world that was already failing to meet its commitments on gender equality has been pushed even further off track by a global crisis that magnified pre-existing structural inequalities.

A primary finding of this report is that the world entered the pandemic on a precarious foundation. Between 2015 and 2019, progress on SDG 5 was slow, uneven, and insufficient to meet the 2030 targets. While tangible gains were made in areas such as girls' education and reducing the prevalence of child marriage, deep structural barriers persisted in women's economic participation, their access to political leadership, and the crushing burden of unpaid care work.

The COVID-19 pandemic acted as a powerful regressive force, triggering what has been termed a "shecession" that disproportionately erased women's economic gains, and a "shadow pandemic" of gender-based violence that surged behind the closed doors of lockdowns. The crisis magnified systemic inequalities, with the most severe impacts falling upon the most vulnerable women—including those in the informal economy, migrants, women with disabilities, and those in conflict-affected settings.

Post-pandemic, the world is critically off-track. Not a single indicator for SDG 5 has been fully achieved. Sobering projections now estimate that it will take centuries to close key gender gaps, including 286 years to achieve legal equality and 140 years for women to be represented equally in leadership positions. This profound setback fundamentally jeopardizes the achievement of the entire 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In light of these findings, a radical acceleration of effort is required. This report concludes that moving forward necessitates a shift from isolated interventions to integrated, gender-responsive policy packages. This demands unprecedented investment in the care economy, the strengthening of robust mechanisms to end violence against women, and deliberate, decisive action to secure women's economic and political leadership. These efforts must be backed by sustained financing and multi-stakeholder accountability to alter the current trajectory and reclaim the promise of gender equality for all.

The Global Mandate for Gender Equality: Deconstructing SDG 5

The Vision of Goal 5: A Foundational and Intersectional Goal

Sustainable Development Goal 5, "Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls," is not a standalone objective but is recognized as a fundamental human right and a critical enabler for all 17 SDGs.1 It is positioned as a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world, acknowledging that women and girls represent half of the world's population and, therefore, half of its potential.3 The centrality of SDG 5 is underscored by the inextricable links between gender equality and progress on other goals. Achievements in poverty reduction (SDG 1), zero hunger (SDG 2), good health and well-being (SDG 3), and decent work and economic growth (SDG 8) are fundamentally dependent on the empowerment of women.1 For instance, analysis indicates that closing the gender gap in farm productivity and the wage gap in agrifood systems would increase global gross domestic product (GDP) by nearly $1 trillion and reduce the number of food-insecure people by 45 million.6

The Nine Pillars of Action: A Comprehensive Framework for Change

The architecture of SDG 5 is built upon nine core targets, each with specific indicators, that collectively form a comprehensive roadmap for systemic change. The design of these targets reveals a sophisticated understanding of the multifaceted nature of gender inequality. It follows a logical progression, beginning with foundational legal rights, then addressing direct and acute harms, and finally tackling the deep-seated structural barriers that permeate the economic, political, personal, and technological spheres of life.

• Target 5.1: End Discrimination. This target focuses on the establishment and enforcement of legal frameworks that promote and monitor non-discrimination on the basis of sex.2 It serves as the bedrock of the entire goal, as discriminatory laws are a primary and official driver of inequality.

• Target 5.2: End Violence. This aims to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in both public and private spheres, including intimate partner violence (IPV), sexual violence, trafficking, and other forms of exploitation.1 VAWG is framed not as a private matter but as one of the most pervasive human rights violations in the world today.1

• Target 5.3: Eliminate Harmful Practices. This specifically targets child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM) and female genital mutilation (FGM), practices rooted in discriminatory social norms that violate human rights and severely curtail the life potential of millions of girls.2

• Target 5.4: Value Unpaid Care Work. This target calls for the recognition, valuation, and redistribution of unpaid care and domestic work. It advocates for the provision of public services, infrastructure, and social protection policies to reduce the burden on women and promote shared responsibility within households.2 This addresses a key structural barrier that underpins women's economic disempowerment.

• Target 5.5: Ensure Full Participation in Leadership. This demands that women have full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic, and public life.2

• Target 5.6: Universal Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). This focuses on ensuring women and girls can make their own autonomous decisions about their bodies, sexuality, and health, a critical component of personal agency and empowerment.1

• Target 5.a: Equal Rights to Economic Resources. This pushes for legal and policy reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, including access to and control over land, property, financial services, and inheritance.2

• Target 5.b: Promote Empowerment through Technology. This forward-looking target aims to enhance the use of enabling technologies, particularly information and communications technology (ICT), to promote the empowerment of women.2

• Target 5.c: Adopt and Strengthen Policies and Legislation. This overarching target ensures the adoption of sound policies and enforceable legislation for gender equality at all levels, reinforcing the entire framework.1

This holistic structure demonstrates that progress is interdependent. Legal equality (Target 5.1) is a prerequisite for addressing other issues. Securing physical safety and autonomy from violence and harmful practices (Targets 5.2 and 5.3) is essential before women can fully participate in public life. Furthermore, tackling the structural economic barriers of unpaid care (Target 5.4) is directly linked to enabling women's access to leadership roles (Target 5.5) and control over economic resources (Target 5.a). This interconnectedness means that failure in one area can stall the entire agenda, while progress can create a virtuous cycle of empowerment.

A Slow March Forward: The State of Gender Equality Pre-Pandemic (2015-2019)

A World Already Off-Track

Even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global community was failing to advance gender equality at the pace required to meet the 2030 Agenda. Reports from UN Women and other international bodies consistently warned that, based on the trajectory from 2015 to 2019, the world was not on track to achieve SDG 5.3 Analysis from Equal Measures 2030 revealed a concerning lack of universal momentum; while two-thirds of countries made some progress towards gender equality between 2015 and 2020, a full one-third showed no progress or had become less gender-equal.5 This baseline of slow and uneven progress created a fragile foundation that would prove highly susceptible to the shock of a global crisis.

Incremental Gains and Persistent Gaps: A Target-by-Target Baseline

A review of progress on specific SDG 5 targets in the pre-pandemic era reveals a mixed but ultimately inadequate picture.

• Legal Frameworks (Target 5.1): Progress in legal reform was marginal. Deep-seated discriminatory laws remained on the books in many nations. As of 2019, 49 countries still lacked specific laws to protect women from domestic violence, and 39 countries barred daughters and sons from having equal inheritance rights.1

• Violence (Target 5.2): VAWG remained a pervasive global crisis. Data from 87 countries indicated that one in five women (20%) aged 15-49 had experienced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner within the previous 12 months.1

• Harmful Practices (Target 5.3): This area saw some of the most tangible progress. The global prevalence of child marriage declined, with the proportion of young women married before the age of 18 falling from approximately one in four a decade prior to one in five.5 However, this progress was heavily concentrated in Southern Asia, while rates in regions like sub-Saharan Africa remained stubbornly high.3 Progress on ending FGM was far too slow; at least 200 million girls and women alive in 2020 had been subjected to the practice.9

• Unpaid Care (Target 5.4): The disproportionate burden of unpaid work on women remained a massive, largely unaddressed structural barrier. Globally, women performed 2.6 times more unpaid care and domestic work than men, limiting their time for paid work, education, and leisure.1

• Leadership (Target 5.5): Progress toward equal representation in decision-making was stagnant. In 2015, women held 22.3% of seats in national parliaments worldwide; by early 2020, this had only crept up by a few percentage points.5 In the economic sphere, women's share of management positions remained below 30%.5

• SRHR (Target 5.6): Women's bodily autonomy remained severely constrained. Globally, only 52% of married or in-union women were able to freely make their own decisions regarding sexual relations, contraceptive use, and health care.1

• Economic Participation: Stagnation in women's economic empowerment was a defining feature of the pre-pandemic period. Despite major strides in education, these gains were not translating into equal economic opportunities.13 Women's global labor force participation rate had been stuck at around 53% since 1990, in stark contrast to the 80% rate for men.13 For those in the workforce, a persistent gender pay gap meant that women in OECD countries earned, on average, around 14% less than men in 2019.14

This pre-pandemic landscape reveals a critical disconnect. While progress in girls' educational attainment was a significant achievement, this accumulation of human capital was not dismantling the structural barriers women faced upon entering adulthood. The data suggests that once women left the education system, they encountered a different and more challenging set of obstacles than men, primarily the societal expectation to perform unpaid care, discriminatory labor market practices, and limited access to finance and leadership roles. This demonstrates that policies focused solely on education were necessary but insufficient. The more profound challenge lay in reforming the very structures of work and society to allow educated women to participate on an equal footing.

The Great Reversal: COVID-19's Disproportionate Impact on Women and Girls

The COVID-19 pandemic was not merely a health crisis; it was a systemic stress test that exposed and exacerbated the deep, often invisible gender biases structuring global economies and societies. The speed and depth of the reversal in progress toward gender equality revealed the fragility of pre-pandemic gains, triggering a "shecession" in the economic sphere and a "shadow pandemic" of violence.

The "Shecession": Economic Devastation and the Widening Gender Gap

The economic downturn caused by the pandemic was swiftly termed a "shecession" due to its disproportionately severe impact on women's employment and economic security.15

• Disproportionate Job and Income Loss: Globally, female employment declined by 4.2% in 2020, compared to a 3.0% decline for men.16 This disparity was largely driven by women's overrepresentation in the contact-intensive sectors that were devastated by lockdowns and social distancing measures, such as hospitality, retail, and food services.15 An estimated 40% of all employed women globally—510 million women—worked in these hard-hit sectors, compared to 36.6% of employed men.18

• The Unpaid Care Crisis: With the closure of schools, daycares, and the unavailability of external help, the burden of unpaid care and domestic work "exploded".18 Women shouldered the vast majority of this additional labor. One study of OECD countries found that women took on an average of 7.7 more hours per week of unpaid childcare than men—a "second shift" equivalent to nearly an extra full-time job.15 This overwhelming burden forced many women to reduce their paid working hours or leave the labor market altogether, with potentially long-lasting consequences for their careers and lifetime earnings.16

• Setbacks in Education: The pandemic posed a grave threat to decades of progress in girls' education. UNESCO estimated that as many as 11 million girls might not return to school after the crisis-related closures, with adolescent girls in low-income countries being at particular risk of dropping out permanently.22 This risk was compounded by severe budget cuts to education enacted by two-thirds of low- and lower-middle-income countries in response to the pandemic's fiscal pressures.23

The "Shadow Pandemic": A Surge in Gender-Based Violence

Concurrently with the economic crisis, lockdowns and confinement measures created a "perfect storm" for a surge in VAWG, particularly domestic violence.24 This alarming trend was quickly dubbed the "Shadow Pandemic" by UN Women.24

• Escalating Violence: Reports from around the globe provided stark evidence of the escalating crisis. Calls to domestic violence helplines surged dramatically; France reported a 32% jump and Lithuania a 20% increase in a matter of weeks 28, while some countries saw a five-fold increase in calls to hotlines.27 A UN Women rapid assessment survey found that one in two women reported that they or a woman they know had experienced a form of violence since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.26

• Collapse of Support Systems: The crisis simultaneously crippled the very systems designed to protect survivors. Health services were overwhelmed by the pandemic, and essential services like domestic violence shelters reached capacity or were repurposed for COVID-19 response.26 The lockdown measures themselves created immense barriers, making it far more difficult for victims to seek help from formal services or even from their informal support networks of family and friends.28

The "shecession" and the "shadow pandemic" were not parallel crises but were causally interlinked in a vicious cycle. The economic distress, job loss, and financial insecurity of the shecession are known risk factors that exacerbate tensions and can lead to intimate partner violence.28 In turn, the threat of violence and the overwhelming increase in care burdens trapped women at home, often with abusers, limiting their ability to work, seek new employment, or escape, thus deepening their economic precarity. This feedback loop underscores that policy responses must address both crises simultaneously; economic empowerment initiatives must be paired with robust GBV support, and vice-versa.

Compounded Vulnerabilities: The Impact on Marginalized Groups

The impacts of the pandemic were not felt equally. They fell most heavily on women and girls who were already facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination.

• Women in the Informal Economy: Comprising 58% of employed women globally, these workers were devastated by lockdowns.18 Lacking social protections such as paid sick leave or unemployment insurance, they faced immediate and catastrophic income loss, with estimates suggesting they lost an average of 60% of their income in the first month of the pandemic.18 In Kenya, for example, a household survey found that 51.2% of women had been rendered jobless due to the pandemic.32

• Migrant and Refugee Women: This group faced what has been described as a "crisis of inequality".33 Trapped by border closures, they were often isolated with abusers, explicitly excluded from national health services and social support packages, and faced heightened risks of exploitation, racism, and xenophobia.33

• Women with Disabilities: The pandemic amplified existing challenges across every dimension. They experienced higher rates of lost earnings (74% compared to 61% for men with disabilities), reduced access to essential health services, food, and water, a greater increase in the burden of unpaid care work, compromised feelings of safety at home, and severely strained mental and emotional health.36

A Global Crisis with Local Faces: Regional Analysis

While the pandemic's gendered impacts were universal, their specific manifestations were shaped by pre-existing regional conditions, underscoring the need for tailored policy responses.

Region

Key Economic Impact ("Shecession")

Key Social Impact ("Shadow Pandemic" & Care)

Source Snippets

Global/OECD

Female employment fell faster than male employment. Women's jobs 19% more at risk.

Increased unpaid care by 7.7 hours/week for women. Reports of increased domestic violence.

15

Sub-Saharan Africa

Disproportionate harm due to high concentration in services. Widespread income reduction.

Increased care burden for rural women (~6 hours/day). Disrupted access to SRH services.

30

Asia & Pacific

More likely to face reduced work hours. Disadvantages in accessing financial support/stimulus.

Increased unpaid domestic and care work. Barriers to accessing vaccinations and medical supplies.

41

Latin America & Caribbean

126 million women in the hard-hit informal economy. Overrepresentation in sectors like retail and tourism.

Surge in domestic violence calls (e.g., +91% in Colombia). Exacerbation of already high femicide rates.

19

The Long Road to Recovery: Projections and Pathways Post-Pandemic

The Current State of Play: A World Further Behind

Halfway to the 2030 deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals, the world is failing profoundly on its commitment to gender equality.45 The pandemic-induced setbacks have not been adequately reversed, leaving a landscape of deepened inequality. As of 2024, not a single indicator under SDG 5 has been fully achieved.46 The latest comprehensive assessments show that only one SDG 5 indicator is considered 'on track', while progress on others is marginal, stagnating, or cannot be measured due to significant data gaps.5 This mirrors the bleak outlook for the entire 2030 Agenda, where only 35% of all SDG targets are on track or making moderate progress, and an alarming 18% are in reverse, falling below 2015 baseline levels.47

The post-pandemic economic recovery has also been gendered. While women's employment has eventually surpassed pre-pandemic levels in some economies, it took women 11 months longer than men to reach this milestone, and deep inequalities persist, particularly for mothers and women of color who face compounded barriers.48

SDG 5 Target

Indicator

Pre-Pandemic Status (c. 2019)

Post-Pandemic Status (Latest Data c. 2023-2024)

Source Snippets

5.2 Violence

% of ever-partnered women experiencing IPV (last 12 months)

~20% (1 in 5)

Data shows intensification; 28.6% in Oceania, 20.4% in Sub-Saharan Africa

1

5.3 Harmful Practices

% of women 20-24 married before age 18

~20% (1 in 5)

19% (marginal progress, but off-track)

3

5.4 Unpaid Care

Ratio of time women spend on unpaid care vs. men

2.6 : 1

2.5 : 1 (Stagnant, next generation still projected at 2.3 more hours/day)

1

5.5 Leadership

% of seats held by women in national parliaments

~24.5%

27.2% (Slow growth)

5

5.5 Leadership

% of women in management positions

~28%

30% (Stagnant, will take nearly 100 years to reach parity)

5

5.6 SRHR

% of women with full decision-making power over SRHR

52%

56.3% (Limited progress)

1

Economic

Global Female Labor Force Participation Rate

~53% (Stagnant since 1990)

Still significantly below men's; recovery took 11 months longer than for men

13

The 2030 Horizon and Beyond: Sobering Projections

The setbacks from the pandemic have pushed the timeline for achieving gender equality far into the distant future. At the current, sluggish rate of progress, UN Women and the World Economic Forum have issued a series of sobering projections that underscore the scale of the challenge:

• It will take an estimated 134 years to reach full gender parity globally.50

• It will take 286 years to close gaps in legal protection and remove all discriminatory laws.3

• It will take 300 years to end child marriage.3

• It will take 140 years for women to be equally represented in positions of power and leadership in the workplace.3

• It will take 162 years to close the Political Empowerment gap.51

• It will take 47 years to achieve equal representation in national parliaments.3

These timelines are not merely statistical artifacts; they represent generations of women and girls who will continue to live with the consequences of systemic inequality. The extended projections are also a symptom of a deeper systemic fragility. They reflect the compounding impact of a "polycrisis," where the fallout from the pandemic intersects with the escalating threats of climate change, conflict, and economic instability.4 For example, climate change is projected to push up to 158 million more women and girls into extreme poverty.6 These crises are mutually reinforcing; the failure to achieve gender equality weakens societal resilience to other shocks, creating a dangerous feedback loop where inequality and crisis fuel each other.

Scenarios for the Future: Damage vs. Investment

The future trajectory is not predetermined. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has modeled different recovery scenarios that highlight the critical policy choices facing the global community.52

• 'High Damage' Scenario: This scenario models a protracted recovery with lower economic growth and persistent productivity losses. The consequences would be catastrophic, pushing an additional 207 million people into extreme poverty by 2030. Crucially, this would include an additional 102 million women and girls, dramatically widening the gender poverty gap.52

• 'SDG Push' Scenario: This alternative scenario demonstrates that an ambitious but feasible set of strategic investments can fundamentally alter this trajectory. A concerted push in social protection, effective governance, digitalization, and a green economy could not only prevent the rise in poverty but could lift an additional 146 million people out of it. This scenario would explicitly narrow the gender poverty gap and reduce the female poverty headcount by 74 million, even after accounting for the pandemic's negative impacts.52

A significant barrier to designing and implementing such targeted interventions is the persistent deficit in gender data. UN Women notes that only 47% of the data required to track progress on SDG 5 is currently available.11 This "invisibility" of women and girls in official statistics is not a mere technical problem; it is a political one. It allows the gendered impacts of policies and crises to be overlooked, hinders the design of effective interventions, and undermines accountability. Investing in robust gender data systems is therefore a foundational requirement for accelerating progress.

Charting a Course for Accelerated Action: Policy Recommendations

The sobering state of SDG 5 demands a radical shift from the status quo. An accelerated and transformative agenda is required, moving beyond piecemeal efforts to a holistic and integrated approach. The 'SDG Push' scenario provides a powerful counter-narrative to pessimistic projections, demonstrating that strategic, targeted investments can fundamentally alter the trajectory toward gender equality.

Rebuilding with a Gender Lens: An Integrated Approach

The recovery from the pandemic must be built on a foundation of gender equality. This requires an integrated, whole-of-government approach that embeds a gender lens into every policy field—from health and education to environmental and fiscal policy.45 Governments must move beyond isolated interventions to create "bundles" of complementary measures that reinforce one another.53 This necessitates strengthening institutional mechanisms for gender mainstreaming and utilizing tools like gender-responsive budgeting to ensure that financial resources are aligned with stated commitments to equality.49

Investing in the Care Economy: Recognize, Reduce, Redistribute

The disproportionate burden of unpaid care work is a core structural barrier to women's economic and social participation. A transformative investment in the care economy is essential and could generate up to 299 million jobs globally by 2035.4 A comprehensive strategy should include:

• Recognize: Officially measure and value unpaid care and domestic work in national statistics to make this contribution visible and inform economic policy.

• Reduce: Invest in public services and infrastructure that reduce the time and drudgery of care work. This includes quality, accessible, and affordable childcare; and expanding access to clean water, sanitation, and sustainable energy, which can save women up to 40 hours a week on average.6

• Redistribute: Promote shared responsibility for care within households and communities. Key policies include implementing paid, non-transferable parental leave for fathers and launching public awareness campaigns to challenge and shift discriminatory social norms.2

Ending the Scourge of Violence: Prevention and Response

Eradicating VAWG is a non-negotiable prerequisite for achieving gender equality. This requires a two-pronged approach of robust response and long-term prevention.

• Strengthen Legal and Justice Systems: Governments must ensure that comprehensive legal frameworks are in place to protect women from all forms of violence. This includes specific laws on domestic violence and defining rape based on the principle of lack of consent, and ensuring these laws are rigorously enforced.1

• Support for Survivors: Shelters, helplines, and legal and psychosocial support services for survivors must be declared "essential services." This ensures they are fully funded, operational, and accessible, even during times of crisis.26

• Invest in Prevention: Implement and scale up evidence-based prevention programs that address the root causes of violence by challenging discriminatory social norms, promoting respectful relationships, and engaging men and boys as allies.26

Driving Economic and Political Empowerment

Closing the gaps in economic and political life is central to the SDG 5 agenda.

• Economic Empowerment: Governments should implement active policies to close the gender pay gap, such as pay transparency legislation.4 It is critical to remove legal and practical barriers that restrict women's employment and entrepreneurship, and to proactively expand women's access to finance, digital technologies, and skills for the jobs of the future.4

• Political Empowerment: To accelerate women's representation in decision-making, governments can adopt temporary special measures, such as quotas for parliaments and corporate boards.49 Furthermore, providing financial and technical support to women-led organizations and feminist movements is crucial, as they are often the most effective drivers of transformative change.56

Financing the Future: Mobilizing Resources and Ensuring Accountability

A radical acceleration of progress is impossible without a commensurate increase in sustained financial backing.45 This requires mobilizing resources from all sources—including increasing official development assistance and strengthening domestic resource mobilization for gender equality. Multi-stakeholder platforms like the Generation Equality Forum are vital for securing concrete policy and financial commitments from governments, the private sector, and civil society. The forum has already been instrumental in generating pledges of over $50 billion toward gender equality initiatives.57 Finally, these commitments must be accompanied by robust accountability mechanisms to track implementation and ensure that pledges translate into tangible, transformative action and impact for women and girls on the ground.57

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