Women will have to wait another 217 years for the pay gap between them and their male counterparts to close, according to information released by The World Economic Forum (WEF).
The WEF report added 47 years onto the initial estimates of when disparities in the pay and employment opportunities of men and women will end.
Calculations have also revealed that, when taking other indicators such as the health and economic spheres into account, the overall global gender gap could be closed in 100 years and not the initial forecast of 83 years.
In a statement, WEF noted that the gender gap has widened for the first time since the "Gender Gap Report" was first published in 2006.
For 2017, the average gender gap stands at 32 percent, which is a jump from last year's 31.7 percent.
The reversal has been influenced by declining gender parity in both the workplace and in political positions.
Quartz noted that women are not getting paid the same salaries as men, despite doing the same jobs.
This is largely because women are more likely to do unpaid work, work in industries with lower average pay, or are less likely to be in high-paid senior jobs, the news website reported.
Certain countries such as Iceland are at the forefront of gender equality. Britain and the U.S. are lagging in closing the gaps in gender disparities.
"Gender equality is both a moral and economic imperative," said Saadia Zahidi, the WEF's head of education, gender and work, according to The Guardian. "Some countries understand this and they are now seeing dividends from the proactive measures they have taken to address their gender gaps."
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