Gender equality is the world’s unfinished business – and unfinished potential

The report, “Unfinished Business: Private Sector and Gender Equality – Transforming Corporate Commitments into Equality for All Women and Girls”, provides a comprehensive snapshot of corporate performance on gender equality, drawing on data from thousands of companies in 117 countries to demonstrate how gender equality remains the world’s unfinished business – and one of our greatest opportunities. It shows how closing gender gaps is both a moral and legal imperative and is good for business and economies. 

“This is a make-or-break moment”, said Kirsi Madi, UN Women Deputy Executive Director. “Thirty years after the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and with only five years left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we are called to deliver on the promise to the half of the world. Businesses cannot afford to treat gender equality as optional.”

Progress is underway. The report highlights how laws and regulations are driving advances in pay transparency, diversity, and safe workplaces. The private sector is expanding commitments, policies and practices for gender equality – where companies with both women and men in leadership teams are 25 per cent more likely to outperform on profitability. On a macro level, achieving gender parity could cumulatively add USD 342 trillion to the global economy by 2050.

Yet despite these positive actions, the report finds that gender equality gains remain too modest, uneven, under-reported, subject to backlash or reversal  – and real harm is still happening. Women make up only 39 per cent of the global workforce, remain concentrated in lower-paying roles, face persistent wage gaps of 20 per cent, and experience higher rates of workplace sexual harassment.

And inaction is not neutral: it is costly. Gender inequality in lifetime earnings between women and men represents USD 160 trillion in lost global wealth. Every delay deepens economic losses, weakens social stability, and undermines the future we promised.

Encouragingly, there is a growing body of evidence showing the transformative impacts when governments, companies, and the United Nations work together to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment. From Tanzania to Canada, and Bolivia to Jordan, the report spotlights emerging practices that are breaking new ground - from gender bonds and care accelerators to inclusive supply chains and more dignified workplaces.

The findings draw a clear picture: when action is mandated, measured, and resourced, change follows. Where it is voluntary or piecemeal, progress stalls.

“Historical change is within reach, but no single actor can close gender gaps alone”, concluded Madi. “We must all act together, now, to close the gap between commitment and actual outcomes.”

The path forward requires urgency and ambition:

• Governments must create and enforce enabling environments that guarantee gender equality and women’s rights and align business incentives with equality goals
• Businesses must embed equality into core strategies, do no harm, and move from voluntary pledges to measurable outcomes
• Better data is needed to drive accountability
• All actors must work in partnership to deliver the change women and girls have waited too long to see.

With backlash intensifying and the SDGs deadline looming, business as usual is no longer an option. The time for half measures has passed.

Download the report: https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2025/09/unfinished-business-private-sector-and-gender-equality

The “Unfinished Business: Private Sector and Gender Equality – Transforming Corporate Commitments into Equality for All Women and Girls” report is a call to action that draws on available data, indices and case studies to highlight progress, persistent gaps and priority actions for States, companies, investors and partners. It details shared obligations and responsibilities, identifies needs for more evidence and supports translating corporate commitments into measurable change.

UN Women exists to advance women’s rights, gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. As the lead UN entity on gender equality, we shift laws, institutions, social behaviours and services to close the gender gap and build an equal world for all women and girls. We keep the rights of women and girls at the centre of global progress – always, everywhere. Because gender equality is not just what we do. It is who we are.