Women in Politics in Africa

Remarkably, twenty-five years into the twenty-first century, there remains an enormous “political empowerment” gender gap between men and women around the world, even as the health and survival and educational attainment gender gaps are nearly closed, and the economic participation and opportunity gender gap is on the way to being closed. The political empowerment gender gap—like the others, a component of the Global Gender Gap Index (World Economic Forum 2025)—measures ratios of women to men in parliaments, in cabinets, and as executives (presidents and prime ministers). On average, the gap is 25 percent women to 75 percent men. This is as true for Africa as for the rest of the world.