Human rights are for everyone, regardless of their age, race, class or gender. Treating people unfairly because of their gender creates unjust societies teeming with inequality. Women, girls, transgender people and gender-diverse people face the most discrimination, which affects their access to good education, jobs, healthcare, legal protections and much more. Progress has been made, but at this rate, it will still take hundreds of years to reach equality. What are the causes of gender inequality? In this article, we’ll describe 13 of the most common examples:
#1. Unequal education
#2. The gender pay gap
#3. Employment segregation
#4. Restrictive laws
#5. Gender-based violence
#6. Threats to reproductive rights
#7. Worse healthcare
#8. Less political representation
#9. Unequal household responsibilities
#10. Religious intolerance
#11. Racial discrimination
#12. Transphobia
#13. Conscious and unconscious bias
Download: Causes of Gender Inequality – Factsheet
#1. Unequal education
When everyone gets a good education, there are better job opportunities, higher incomes, less violence and better health. Historically, girls have been excluded from education at higher rates than boys. While the global gender gap in education is shrinking, sub-Saharan Africa has not achieved gender parity at any level of education, according to GEM’s 2024 Gender Report. In Afghanistan, which bans secondary and higher education for women, 1.4 million Afghan girls are excluded from education. Inequality in education affects not only girls, but entire societies by increasing the risk of poverty, child mortality and conflict.
#2. The gender pay gap
Across the world, women earn less money than men. According to an ILO Global Wage Report from 2018/2019, women earn 20% less than men due to factors like differences in education, pay discrimination and motherhood, which enacts what ILO calls a “wage penalty.” The most recent report released for 2024-2025 shows little progress. Gender pay gaps affect even wealthy countries, like the United States. Women working full-time earn (on average) 84 cents to every man’s dollar, which leads to less support from Social Security and pensions. Globally, women are more likely than men to experience poverty, and at the current rate of progress, it will take 170 years to close the global gender pay gap.
#3. Employment segregation
Employment segregation is the unequal distribution of men and women in the workforce. A report from the World Bank Group’s Job Group describes horizontal and vertical segregation, which means men and women can be concentrated across different industries and occupations, as well as unequally distributed in promotions and manager roles. Globally, women tend to work in vulnerable, low-paying jobs like care work, while men get more access to higher-paying, more stable careers. Inequality won’t end with employing more women if those jobs don’t pay well or have opportunities for growth. For example, from September 2022-2024, women in India comprised 41% of newcomers to the workforce, but they were overrepresented in low-wage industries.
#4. Restrictive laws
Many countries institutionalize gender inequality. According to a 2022 World Bank report, 178 countries have legal barriers that restrict the economic participation of 2.4 billion women. 95 countries don’t ensure equal pay for equal work. Other discriminatory laws include Saudi Arabia’s Personal Status Law, which denies women equal rights during a divorce, and Afghanistan’s “vice and virtue” laws, which ban women from speaking or showing their faces outside the home. Laws that discriminate based on gender disempower women and cause significant inequality.
#5. Gender-based violence
Gender-based violence is any violence directed at a person because of their gender or perceived gender. While men comprise most intentional homicide victims, most victims of intimate partner and family-related murder are women, according to data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Every day, more than 133 women or girls are killed by someone in their family. By age 19, 1 in 4 women who’ve been in a relationship have already experienced physical, sexual or psychological abuse by a partner. Gender-based violence not only causes severe physical and mental distress, but also fewer job opportunities, lower earning potential and reduced societal participation. A world that’s unsafe for women is inherently unequal.
#6. Threats to reproductive rights
Reproductive rights are a bedrock of gender equality. Without the freedom to choose if and when to have children, women experience threats to their health, education, careers and safety. According to research from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, abortion restrictions in the US (which overturned federal abortion protections in 2022) lower a woman’s lifetime earnings and make it less likely she’ll graduate from school. Researchers have also noticed a link between domestic violence and abortion restrictions; when women can’t access abortion, rates of intimate partner violence increase. Threats to reproductive rights deepen existing gender inequality.
#7. Worse healthcare
Women have historically received lower-quality healthcare compared to men, which affects their health outcomes and lifespans. Described another way, the women’s health gap adds up to 75 million years of life gone each year because of poor health or early death. Inequality in healthcare takes many forms, such as a lack of research into issues primarily affecting women, and dismissals of women’s pain. One study in Nature found that women endure longer hospital times and are less likely to get pain medication compared to men. Women (especially women belonging to ethnic and racial minority groups) are also 20-30% more likely than white men to get misdiagnosed. In many cases, this inequality can be fatal.
#8. Less political representation
Gender inequality spreads to the world’s highest positions of power. In 2024, UN Women reported that just 19 countries had female Heads of State, while women held 50% or more Cabinet Minister positions in only 15 countries. Of the women who do have political power, they tend to be excluded from economic affairs, justice, home affairs and defense. That means women don’t have equal representation or decision-making power in any country on Earth. While representation would not necessarily usher in a utopia, an unequal political system is still unjust.
#9. Unequal household responsibilities
Women and girls spend significantly more time on unpaid household chores than their male counterparts. According to Oxfam, women perform ¾ of unpaid care work, which equals 12.5 billion hours of unpaid labor every day. 42% of women spend so much time on this work, they can’t get jobs, compared to just 6% of men experiencing the same problem. Even in countries with smaller gender equality gaps, inequality often begins at home, and its effects spread through an entire society. While it’s difficult to quantify tasks like cooking, cleaning and caring for kids, experts estimate the economic value at 10-60% of GDP.
#10. Religious intolerance
In the human rights field, religious freedom and human rights can clash, but as researcher Marie Juul Petersen writes, research demonstrates a “strong correlation” between countries that restrict religion and perpetuate gender inequality. Consider how extremist religious groups like the Taliban in Afghanistan attack women, girls and religious minorities. Religious intolerance also includes banning peaceful displays of religious belief, like how France banned headscarves for French female athletes competing in the 2024 Olympics. Women nearly always experience the most discrimination when religious tolerance is attacked, whether that’s by another religious group or a government. To protect women and gender equality, religious tolerance is a value to be encouraged, not disavowed.
#11. Racial discrimination
Gender inequality and racial discrimination go hand-in-hand. If you look at all the issues affecting women, such as the risk of violence and worse healthcare, women and girls from oppressed racial groups experience the worst effects. Black women in the United States experience higher rates of intimate partner violence, while Black, Latina and Native women have a wider gender pay gap than women overall. The material mortality rate for Black mothers is also much higher – 49.5 deaths per 100,000 live births compared to 19.0 for white mothers. Racism can’t be ignored when addressing the causes of gender inequality.
#12. Transphobia
Transphobia, which is a prejudice or hatred toward transgender people, is a form of gender discrimination. Gender inequality discussions tend to focus on cis women and girls, but transgender and gender-diverse people face stark inequalities, too. According to the United Nations, most of the world’s trans people lack legal protections – like recognition by the State – and face higher rates of violence and stigma. At least nine countries have laws targeting trans and gender-diverse people with punishments like fines, forced counseling and imprisonment. Solutions to gender equality must include protection for all oppressed genders.
#13. Conscious and unconscious bias
Beliefs about women, men, gender and power enforce gender inequality in every society. Whether that’s believing women are unfit for certain jobs or men shouldn’t express emotions, it feeds the fires of inequality. One UN report found that 85% of men and women hold some bias against women. Biases aren’t always conscious. Beliefs are often so embedded within societies, people perpetuate bias without knowing the harm they’re causing. For example, a study in Nature Human Behavior found that scientists – both men and women – unconsciously favored male researchers for important promotions. As long as conscious and unconscious gender bias goes unchallenged, societies will struggle to achieve full equality.
Conclusion
The causes of gender inequality persist across the world with clusters of greater inequality. In places like sub-Saharan Africa and Afghanistan, girls still lack equal education and basic legal protections, while even in more equal countries like the United States, the gender pay gap and worse healthcare make life harder for women and girls. Gender-based violence is a global epidemic, but causes like limited political representation, unpaid labor, employment segregation and threats to reproductive rights can be just as damaging. All these factors contribute to a world struggling to protect the rights of all, but once we understand the roots of the problem, we can work toward solutions.
