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A landmark report from the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London delivers a sobering truth: not one of the UK’s 372 local authorities has achieved full gender equality.
The Gender Equality Index UK draws on data from the years 2021 to 2023 to measure equality across six domains: paid work, unpaid work, pay, status, education, and health. What emerges is a complex map of inequality revealing regional divides (with an evident north-south split) and persistent gender imbalances.
The report provides more than just a snapshot of gender-based inequality in the UK; it issues an urgent call to action for policymakers and industry leaders. Achieving full gender equality is critical for the future of work and also fundamental to building resilient, healthy, and sustainable workforces.
What Regional Trends Reveal for Employers on the Ground
The Gender Equality Index UK offers a compelling rationale for prioritizing gender equity. Regional data reveals that where both genders thrive, outcomes are stronger across all domains (proving that addressing inequalities is beneficial for entire communities); and, in areas where men and women both struggle, economic and social progress stalls.
In areas that rank high on the gender equality scale (such as Kingston-upon-Thames in London), women and men achieve similar positive outcomes across all six domains due to shared progress. Similar high levels of gender parity in regions such as Blackpool (in the North of England) have produced poorer outcomes for everyone due to shared disadvantage. This comparison shows that achieving gender equality alone is insufficient. What counts is whether that equality is based on prosperity.
For employers, the takeaway is essentially an economic one: workplaces that actively commit to gender equality are more likely to achieve long-term productivity and growth. Achieving gender parity in the workplace requires equitable hiring practices, fair career development opportunities, and meaningful support for employees with caregiving responsibilities through more flexible, gender-inclusive work policies.
The challenge in the UK is to extend workplace gender equality to all regions. Some solutions include:
- Offering remote-first roles accessible from anywhere
- Building leadership pipelines for underrepresented areas
- Creating gender-responsive leave policies to support carework
- Investing in local skills and mentorship programs
- Supporting men’s participation in care work to balance professional opportunities for all.
Why Shared Care Work Matters for Gender Equality
The Gender Equality Index UK highlights several barriers to gender equality, particularly the persistent burden women face in unpaid care duties. Women continue to shoulder the burden of childcare and domestic responsibilities and remain underrepresented in leadership roles across business, politics, and civic life. One way to address this imbalance is by promoting the widespread acceptance of shared caregiving through policies such as non-transferable parental leave and extended paternity leave (at least six months). Such measures would enable both parents to contribute equally without risking their careers.
Interestingly, the Index shows that in areas where men engage in unpaid care work, there are improved socioeconomic outcomes. However, the report’s authors clarify that this link is not necessarily causal. The Index also highlights a positive association between greater male involvement in unpaid care and improved employment, status, and income outcomes for women.
Professor Heejung Chung, Director of King’s Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, said, “Our research highlights the benefits of gender equality for men. For instance, in contexts where men take on a greater share of unpaid care work, they tend to experience better socioeconomic outcomes. This report reaffirms that gender equality is not, and has never been a zero-sum game. It offers a set of blueprints for how we can develop and support communities in which both men and women can prosper.”
Regional Inequalities Threaten to Undermine a Fair Future of Work
The Gender Equality Index UK shows that local economies with higher gender equality consistently have stronger full-time employment rates, greater productivity, and expanded economic activity. In contrast, the lowest-performing areas face economic decline and stagnation. Often impacted by the collapse of traditional industries such as manufacturing and agriculture, these regions demonstrate that poor gender equality frequently results in poorer outcomes for everyone, regardless of gender.
Limited access to quality jobs, leadership roles, and flexible working conditions restricts workforce participation for women in regions with poorer outcomes and chronic underinvestment. Researchers argue these regional gaps demand targeted investment and inclusive gender policies to strengthen their local economies. Without addressing these disparities, poorer areas will continue to face higher unemployment, fewer upskilling opportunities, and a shortage of quality flexible jobs, especially for women with caregiving responsibilities.
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“The United Kingdom faces a critical moment marked by economic challenges, regional divides, and entrenched inequalities giving rise to increasing discontent,” said Dr. Caitlin Schmid, Research Fellow at the King’s Global Institute for Women’s Leadership. “The Gender Equality Index UK brings these issues into sharp focus, exposing how gender and geography intersect to shape the lives of women and men across the country.”
The report emphasizes that one-size-fits-all solutions are ineffective and that interventions need to be tailored to address each community’s specific challenges. For example, in regions where unpaid care responsibilities limit women’s workforce participation, there is a need not only for expanded childcare but also for policies that support more men to engage in unpaid caregiving work. As Fiona McKenzie, Policy Analyst at leading UK think tank, The Centre for Cities, explains, “It’s not just about encouraging more women into leadership. We need to simultaneously invest in local infrastructure, flexible childcare, and support for men to take on more caregiving.”
The report also points to the urgent need to support women who are self-employed across all regions. Strengthening maternity rights, sick leave, and pension protections for self-employed workers has become increasingly important as traditional employment models give way to freelance and gig-based work.
The Index provides a practical framework for employers and policymakers to advance gender equality:
- Prioritize gender equity not just as a fairness issue, but as a critical component of a sustainable future work landscape.
- Design policies and job structures that support all genders to engage in paid work alongside unpaid care responsibilities.
- Invest in under-resourced regions by expanding access to high-quality, flexible employment opportunities, recognizing that such jobs remain unevenly distributed.
Gender Equity is Key to Workforce Resilience
The Index delivers an unambiguous message: gender equality is fundamental not only to a healthy workforce but also to a thriving economy. Achieving this demands coordinated efforts across sectors and requires active participation from employers, policymakers, and communities alike. Without robust intervention, persistent inequalities risk trapping women—and increasingly men—in cycles of unpaid care and underemployment.
Meaningful economic and social progress is almost impossible without clear, data-driven evidence to highlight existing disparities. For instance, policies such as the Trump administration’s ban on using gender and race data in federal hiring jeopardize critical tools needed to identify and address inequities in the US. In stark contrast, the Gender Equality Index UK provides robust data to inform tailored strategies for achieving economic growth across all regions of the UK.
The future of work depends on confronting deeply rooted inequalities within workplaces and across regions. Without deliberate and targeted action, the divide between areas of high and low gender equality will grow, perpetuating exclusion and preventing whole communities from sharing in economic and social transformation.
