The Amsterdam Centre for Business Innovation (ACBI) at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), led by Professor Henk Volberda, is the WEF’s partner institute in the Netherlands and collected the national data for the report.

Sharp drop

While Scandinavian countries continue to dominate the top of the index – joined by the United Kingdom, Germany and Ireland – the Netherlands has fallen sharply, with just 75.6% of its gender gap closed. This marks a significant decline of 1.9% compared to last year, primarily driven by a decline in the area of political empowerment.

In terms of economic participation and opportunity, the Netherlands remains in 74th place. There have been minor improvements in the number of women in management and technical roles. However, these gains are modest compared to the more substantial progress seen in countries like the UK and across Scandinavia. ‘The results clearly show that Dutch gender equality policy needs a serious overhaul,’ says Volberda. ‘New, concrete targets are essential if the Netherlands is to make its way back into the top 10.’

Global outlook

Globally, the gender gap has narrowed slightly this year. Overall, 68.8% of the gap has been closed – a modest increase of 0.4 percentage points from last year. At this pace, it will take an estimated 123 years to reach full gender parity.

The smallest global gaps remain in access to education (95.1% closed) and health and survival (96.2% closed). By contrast, economic participation and opportunity shows slower progress, with 61% of the gap closed (a 0.5% improvement on last year). The largest global gap continues to be in political empowerment, with only 22.9% of the gap closed.

While economic and political equality have shown the greatest gains over time, they still represent the areas with the largest remaining disparities.

Key findings from the 2025 report:

1. The gender gap has narrowed only slightly in 2025; at the current rate, full equality won’t be reached until the year 2148.
2. Scandinavian countries top the ranking, joined in the top 10 by the UK, Germany and Ireland.
3. The Netherlands drops 15 places to 43rd in the Global Gender Gap Index.
4. Female labour force participation has increased to 41.2%, but women remain overrepresented in low-paid, people-oriented sectors.
5. Despite higher education levels, women hold only 28.8% of senior leadership roles.
6. Women are 55.2% more likely than men to experience career interruptions.