Launch of the Gender Snapshot Report 2026 | United Nations

According to a new UN report, one in three institutions built to advance gender equality have been stripped of power in just two years. The UN warns that a deliberate political retreat from gender equality is reversing decades of progress and calls for equal power for women everywhere. The Gender Snapshot 2026 report, released by UN Women and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), shows that where women hold real power, outcomes improve across every dimension of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development - from peace to education, and from poverty to climate action. Yet the very institutions built over decades to advance gender equality are being systematically weakened, stalling or reversing progress at precisely the moment when the world cannot afford to go backwards. The findings of the Gender Snapshot 2026 report reveal a political retreat from gender equality that is crosscutting, measurable, and compounding. One in three institutional mechanisms for gender equality has had its institutional power eroded over the past two years. Around one in four have seen their operating budgets cut over the same period, and nearly one in ten have lost control of their budget altogether. Funding for gender equality has fallen to its lowest level since 2021, with funding for women’s rights organizations most impacted. Meanwhile, amid funding cuts, 42 percent of UN entities report a weakening of their gender equality efforts. The concentration of political power remains stark: six in seven countries are led by men. Women continue to face systemic barriers at every stage. The cost of running for office can exceed 100 times a country’s average per-capita income, excluding many women before the race even begins. In some countries, as many as eight in 10 women running for office face violence in public life. And when women do reach cabinet, they are still disproportionately steered away from the portfolios that command the highest security and economic power. Close to nine in 10 defense ministers and more than eight in 10 finance ministers are men. As women continue to face barriers to equal participation and influence, decades of political and legal gains on gender equality are increasingly being contested and, in some cases, dismantled. Not one single indicator on the Sustainable Development Goal for gender equality (SDG5) is on track to be met by 2030. The pattern extends beyond government. Women hold only 6 percent of corporate Chief Executive Officer positions globally and lead fewer than 20 percent of the highest courts, leaving the decisions shaping business, law, employment, and the global economy overwhelmingly in the hands of men. The findings of the report come at a consequential moment for the multilateral system. World leaders are gathering for the 81st Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA81) as the United Nations moves towards selecting its tenth Secretary-General – a position that no woman has held in the UN’s 80-year history. As governments debate the future of multilateralism, the report argues that no vision for the future of the world is credible without women and girls having an equal share of power in shaping it. UN Women and UN DESA are calling for a reversal of the political retreat on gender equality - and for power to be shared more equally. That means ensuring women have an equal voice in political and economic decisions, properly funding gender equality institutions, protecting women’s rights organizations and civic space, and ensuring women have equal power to shape the decisions that affect economies, peace and security, technology and public life.


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