In 2017 the World Economic Forum had reported that it would take 217 years to close the global gender pay gap; this has narrowed slightly in 2018, to 202, but that the number of women in the professional workplace has decreased, and more generally that efforts towards gender equality remain slow. By and large, women across the world are paid 63% of what men earn. Laos, in south-east Asia, comes closest to parity with women earning 91% of what men are paid. Yemen, Syria and Iraq have the largest gaps with women being paid less than 30%. In politics, it will take 107 years until there are as many female politicians. From the 149 reporting countries, 17 have women as heads of state, with 18% as ministers and 24% as parliamentarians. Iceland has the most females in politics, but the gender gap of 33% has increased since last year.
See "Global pay gap will take 202 years to close, says World Economic Forum", Rupert Neate, The Guardian, December 19, 2018