Gender Equality

Assessing the level of gender equality in society is not an easy task. Especially making quantitative comparisons between countries, using figures to characterise phenomena that cannot be measured in money and are subjectively imperceptible. This task has been taken up by many international organisations involved in the assessment of societal development.

Many indices take into account and show the gender (in)equality situation, but there are assessment systems focused solely on that issue. There are two types of these systems: ones that focus on the situation of women and ones that attempt to assess the gender system and the situation of both genders, ie men and women.

• The Gender Equity Index of Social Watch, an international network focusing on poverty eradication and gender justice issues.
• The UN Human Development Index of the Human Development Report is widely known and includes a natural environment and gender dimension.
• The Gender Equality Index (GII), prepared by the UN Development Programme, is based on indicators of women’s reproductive health, empowerment and labour market participation.
• The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) index seeks to provide a more in-depth analysis of the connection between social institutions (family, law, norms, culture, prejudices, attitudes, etc) and gender inequality (the OECD database and the annual report (SIGI)).
• The Global Gender Gap Report (GGI) of the World Economic Forum. The report compares differences between men and women in four primary areas: opportunities and involvement in economy and in political decision-making, education, health and life expectancy.