Global Scans · Gender · Weekly Summary

WHAT'S NEXT?: Achieving global gender parity will take many decades yet. Read on to understand the trends, challenges and efforts to advance parity at a faster pace.

• [New] Organizations including Milwaukee's Equal Rights Commission have pushed back due to concerns on accuracy and bias that could arise from facial recognition technology, especially for women and people of colour. The Badger Herald
• [New] Rural women in the United States are at particular risk for hypertension due to high rates of abdominal obesity, poor diet, low physical activity, and less access to health and preventive care compared to urban women. PubMed Central (PMC)
• [New] Both countries have pioneered bond issuances which feature specific coupon step-ups (and step-downs in the case of Uruguay) tied to performance on key indicators that include meeting their greenhouse gas emission targets by 2030 and improving board gender diversity by 2031. MFS
• [New] The REACH (Reversing the Epidemic in Africa with Choices in HIV prevention) trial will enroll 300 girls and young women ages 16-21 at five sites in Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. HIV.gov
• [New] Low- and middle-income countries, including LACs, are projected to experience the greatest population growth in women at midlife and older worldwide over the next few decades. PubMed Central (PMC)
• [New] By 2025 the number of postmenopausal women will be around 1.1 billion worldwide and it is claimed that many will present with complex medical issues beyond the scope of traditional gynaecologists and general practitioners. PubMed Central (PMC)
• [New] The recent paper by Caribou Digital and Genesis Analytics explores the impact of AI on Africa's business process outsourcing (BPO) sector and found that 40% of tasks are at risk of automation and women face a 10% higher automation risk than men. IDRC - International Development Research Centre
• [New] More than 351 million women and girls could still be living in extreme poverty by the end of the decade if current trends persist. UN News
• [New] Data shows that by the year 2030, there will be 351 million women and girls who live in the very worst forms of poverty around the world. UN News
• [New] Gender gaps continue to widen and are projected to take 123 years to achieve full gender parity globally. AVPN
• [New] Take the wealth management industry - according to the Centre for Economic and Business Research, women are expected to hold 60% of the UK's wealth in 2025, yet the managers who serve them are overwhelming male. Prosek Partners
• [New] Most Australian women of reproductive age prescribed GLP-1 receptor agonists - medications increasingly used for weight loss such as Ozempic - are not using effective contraception, despite known risks during pregnancy. ScienceDaily
• [New] Women taking popular weight-loss medications during their reproductive years may be unaware of associated risks to pregnancy and unborn babies. ScienceDaily
• [New] The gender alert raised the issue that, as women and girls in Afghanistan more broadly, but also the returnees in particular, face increased risks of poverty, early marriage, violence, exploitation and unprecedented restrictions on their rights, movements and freedoms. Forbes
• [New] The Federal Government has announced a new national skills programme aimed at connecting 20 million young Nigerians to jobs, training, and entrepreneurship opportunities by 2030, with at least 60% of beneficiaries expected to be women. Punch Newspapers
• [New] By 2030, fully 45% of prime-age women would be single. Institute for Family Studies
• [New] An accelerated SDG push in social protection, the green economy, education, labour markets, innovation and effective governance can reduce global female extreme poverty from 9.2% in 2025 to 2.7% in 2050 and can unlock an additional $35.6 trillion in global GDP in 2050. UN DESA VOICE
• [New] More CEOs, C-suite folks, and especially historically underrepresented corporate leaders (women, people of colour, people with disabilities, LGBTQ, neurodivergent) will build their voices online through social (LinkedIn especially), internal and external podcasts, Substacks, etc. Future Social
• [New] Women from ethnic minority backgrounds or areas of high social deprivation are at higher risk of postpartum haemorrhage. Keele University
• [New] Ensuring equality of gender remains a pressing issue worldwide, with women experiencing various forms of violence, discrimination, and limited access to opportunities. Scribd
• [New] The risk of gestational diabetes among FI women is well documented in the USA, but UK data, especially for South Asian women, is lacking. Nature
• [New] The relentless bombardment, blockade, hunger and famine imposed by the occupying Israeli forces have placed millions of innocent lives at risk including children, the elderly and women. Hamariweb.com Articles

Last updated: 18 September 2025