U.S. is behind on gender equality, new report finds

The U.S. ranks 38th in the world on the newly released 2022 SDG Gender Index, which tracks the empowerment of women and girls across a variety of metrics — from health to education to workplace rights. The report looks at pre-COVID data, and its authors warn that the picture for women and girls is even worse today.

The big picture: In a crisis, progress on gender equality tends to get rolled back — women and girls are often first to leave their jobs or schools to handle more caregiving responsibility, for example.

• This index shows that the state of gender equality was fragile and lagging even before the crisis of COVID — and we know the pandemic forced women out of work, drove up maternal mortality rates and even led to a spike in child marriage rates in some countries.
• No country has achieved full gender parity, according to the report. Still, some made progress since 2015, when the index was first published.

Details: Equal Measures 2030 is a coalition of feminist advocacy groups, including the Gates Foundation, Plan International and other groups worldwide. The index looks at gender across a range of sustainability goals established by the U.N.

• The report found that wealthier nations tend to rank higher for gender equality, but the U.S. ranks closer to less-wealthy nations like South Korea and Costa Rica.

What to watch: March is women's history month, expect a raft of data and information on women's economic standing.

Editor's note: This story originally published on March 3.