The gender pay gap is one of those underlying and toxic issues that operates on a number of levels, from maternity discrimination to lack of boardroom access.

It’s hard to stamp out precisely because of the subtle way that it takes root at every step of a woman’s career, whether that be hiring decisions, sexism in the workplace or issues related to state pension access.

Gender prejudice more widely is even more entrenched, with rape conviction rates, domestic abuse and everyday sexism all building barriers around women’s progress.

The bottom line is, we have a huge amount of hurdles to overcome in the fight for equality – and a new report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) highlights exactly how lengthy the battle will be.

In its annual Global Gender Gap Report released today, the WEF predicts that it will take 99.5 years to achieve full gender parity for women worldwide.

This is exactly how long it will take for women to be equal to men worldwide