To talk about “gender equality”, particularly as a man, is to walk a tiny tightrope, strung high above a swamp of crocodiles, who are all too happy to eat you, if you fall. And like all swamps, gender equality is muddled, impossible to dissect, or see beyond, and hides great pit falls, that the overconfident or the foolish fall down. Despite these challenges… People want simple, straight forward, tweetable answers, where there are none. Others grasp for ammunition, or hand grenades, to throw at “the other side”, without rhyme or reason. Many paint in a singular color, black versus white, or red versus blue, with sloganeering, cartoonish, one-size-fits-all rhetoric of “privilege” and “the patriarchy”. It is, of course, not an easy place to tread, especially when so many quietly want you to slip, and fall into the snapping jaws of those patiently waiting below. And so we need a map; impartial, evidence based, and non-political, to guide us on this topsy turvy journey toward a better, fairer, smarter world. The World Economic Forum claim to hold such a thing, with their Global Gender Gap Report (GGGR), that maps out gender inequality across the world, every year, and is frequently the source for endless saber-ratting outrage by the media. But… If you were looking for something solid to pin your beliefs on – this is not it – as the GGGR is as flawed as they come; beyond shortsightedness, to be described as systemically sexist itself, that wholesale erases male disadvantage altogether… Let me show you… ~ GGGR 2025 https://tinyurl.com/4ur6mtmx Images by Teemu Paananen, Evangeline Shaw, Arnaud Mariat

2025-08-18