This document summarizes the Global Women's Leadership Initiative Index, which tracks women's representation in leadership positions across over 195 countries. It aims to achieve 50% representation of women in leadership by 2050. The index measures progress across three pillars: pathways to leadership, positions held, and formal/informal power. It finds that education, part-time work, and public administration help advance women's leadership. Higher representation of women is linked to better governance. The index collaborates with UN agencies and other partners to monitor trends and support achieving gender parity in decision-making worldwide.

1. Global Women’s Leadership Initiative Index
Roadmap to 50x50:
Power and Parity in Women’s
Leadership
2019

2. About the Women in Public Service Project
The Women in Public Service Project will accelerate global progress towards women’s equal participation in policy
and political leadership to create more dynamic and inclusive institutions that leverage the full potential of the
world’s population to change the way global solutions are forged.
The Women in Public Service Project is pursuing
the goal of 50x50: women holding 50% of policy
and political leadership positions by 2050.

3. Why Data?
Change
Solutions
Innovation
Measure

4. The Leadership Index
WHAT IS IT?
The Global Women’s Leadership Initiative Index is the cornerstone of the Women in Public Service Project’s data platform, which
features key indicators on women’s leadership for over 195 countries and territories.
WHAT DOES IT DO?
The Leadership Index is the first global index to define power and leadership with over 85
indicators that:
• Serve as a comprehensive benchmark
• Show progress over time
• Allow public access to the data for further analysis
• Allow for a systems-level understanding of representation
• Provide innovative metrics to measure power
Sectors of Government5 Countries75 National&Local ParticipationTrue

5. Change in key indicators
over time
Previously unnoticed
relationships between
countries
Linkages between index
scores and policy change
Relationships between the
pillars
What can the
Leadership Index
tell us about
global leadership?

6. Three Pillars to Parity
PATHWAYS
Addresses women’s
access to positions of
leadership
POSITIONS
Defines leadership
positions across five
sectors of government.
POWER
Measures the formal
and informal powers
granted to leadership
positions: influence,
perception
Indicators: 45 Indicators: 18 Indicators: 19

7. An Innovative Vision of Balanced Leadership
Balanced Parity: women are represented at the
highest levels and across policy functions
Flat Parity: women are at lower levels of decision-
making but represented across policy functions
Siloed Parity: women are represented at the
highest levels but only within certain policy
functions
Pursuing Parity: women remain underrepresented
both at the highest levels of leadership and across
policy functions

8. Roadmap to 50x50: Power and Parity in Women’s Leadership
Key Findings

9. Education Counts

10. Part-Time Work
Opens Paths to Leadership
Part-time work arrangements enable more
women to lead

11. Public Administration
is the Starting Point
Public administration is on track to become the first
sector of government to achieve gender parity in
decision-making positions - currently
29.7% globally

12. Breaking Glass Walls
Breaking through barriers to leadership across decision-
making areas can help us achieve full gender parity

13. Perception Matters

14. Women in Power are Linked
to Good Governance

15. Roadmap to 50x50: Power and Parity in Women’s Leadership
A Global Effort

16. Data and Index Partners
INDEX COLLABORATORS
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
DATA PARTNERS
Boardwalk Leadership
Institute for African Women in Law
Partnership for Public Service
INDEX ADVISORY COUNCIL
Pauline Baker, President Emeritus, The Fund for
Peace
Jose Cruz-Osoria, Team Leader, Responsive and
Accountable Institutions, Governance and
Peacebuilding Division, Bureau for Policy and
Program Support (BPPS), UNDP
Muge Finkel, Assistant Professor, University of
Pittsburgh
Rachel M. Gisselquist, Research Fellow, United
Nations University, World Institute for Development
Economics Research (UNU_WIDER)
Melanie M. Hughes, Associate Professor, University
of Pittsburgh
Alejandro Ponce, Chief Research Officer, World
Justice Project
Robert Rotberg, Founding Director, Harvard Kennedy
School Program on Intrastate Conflict; President
Emeritus, World Peace Foundation; Fellow, American
Academy of Arts and Sciences
Robyn Scott, Co-Founder and CEO, Apolitical
Jill Schuker, President, JAS International
RepresentWomen
UN Women

17. Power and Leadership Are Intertwined
4.471642248
4.267109291
4.002487775 3.921989465 3.829985083
3.326460261
3.014971889
3.411525398 3.322889965
3.126294612
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Finland Iceland Canada Norway Slovenia
Top 5 countries in terms of power score and overall score
Power Score Overall Score

18. Female leadership in parliament
55.70%
46.10%
41.50% 42% 41.40%
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
Rwanda (Rank 1) Sweden (Rank 7) South Africa (Rank 10) Finland (Rank 11) Norway (Rank 13)
Proportion of Women in Parliament

20. Women in Security – Nationally and Internationally
6.80%
10.90%
20.00%
16.10% 16.00% 15.90%
15.10%
11.30% 10.70%
10.00%
1.30%
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
NATO
Avarage
Hungary Slovenia Latvia US Canada Germany Norway UK Turkey
Year 2000 Proportion of women in the armed forces
2.975
2.17
2.02
0
1
2
3
4
5
NORWAY BULGARIA HUNGARY
OVERALL BEST SECURITY
SECTOR SCORES
Proportion of women in the armed forces across
NATO member states