In countries with higher scores on the 2017 Human Development Index, women represent a larger share of the workforce in care-economy jobs, such as teachers, nurses, or social workers.
On an hourly basis, women overall were paid 18.6 percent less, on average, than men in 2025. This is a slight increase from 2024. Women make less money than men at every education level, and the gap widens as education level increases.
The National Institutes of Health's series of grant cancellations in 2025 disproportionately impacted women scientists compared to their male peers. Although women lost less money overall, they had more active resources unspent at the time of cancellation, leading to a great portion of unrealized scientific output, particularly among women in early-career positions.
According to scholars at the University of Ottawa in Canada, the gender gap in publication output and research impact in economics and political science is shrinking among junior faculty. However, significant gaps persist among full professors.
As of 2024, women working full-time earn 81 cents for every one dollar earned by men. Over a 40-year career, this gap equates to $542,800 in lost wages for full-time working women. Women earn less per dollar compared to their male counterparts in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
Scholars at New York University Abu Dhabi have argued that widespread generalizations about gender differences in competitiveness and risk tolerance are flawed as prior research has historically focused on White participants.
Although women are the majority of undergradaute students (55 percent), they are underrepresented among NCAA varsity student-athletes (43 percent). Women are also less than half of all coaches for women's collegiate athletic teams.
Currently, women are the head of government in 13 UN member countries. Ten of these women are their country's first female leader. Only 63 of the 193 UN member countries have been led by a woman.
In 2024, 7.9 million women across the EU worked as scientists and engineers, up from 5.2 million women in 2014 and 3.4 million women in 2008. Across all economic activities, women represented 40.5 percent of scientists and engineers in the EU workforce in 2024.Â
Across four studies, new research led by Cornell University's Alice Lee, found women consistently show a stronger preference for postings with narrower salary ranges compared to men. The research revealed a similar pattern within the labor market itself; industries with wider posted salary ranges have a lower representation of women in the workforce.
Women made up 8.1 percent of all workplace fatalities in 2024, down from 8.5 percent in 2023. But women accounted for 12.8 percent of homicides or suicides at work in 2024.
In 2025, 9.6 percent of women workers and 10.4 percent of male workers were members of labor unions. Women union members earned, on average, 87.2 percent of the average wages of male union members.
