The global gender gap will take 100 years to close at the current rate of change, according to new World Economic Forum research.

The WEF’s annual report into gender equality found increasing inequality at the workplace and in political representation, contributing to its calculation that it would take a century to reach overall gender parity compared with its estimate last year of 83 years.

According to the WEF’s metrics — which take into account disparities between men and women in health, education, politics and the workplace — the world has closed 68 per cent of the gap between total gender inequality and total equality. That is slightly worse than the figures for 2016 and 2015, when the gender gap was 68.3 and 68.1 per cent respectively, and represents the first widening of the gap since the WEF began such calculations 11 years ago.