Gender Inequality Index

When a woman expresses disdain about a situation at work, she is often described as "emotional", whereas when a man does it, he is lauded as "assertive". This is just one of the many examples of how prevalent gender inequality still is in the contemporary world. In order to fully understand the extent of and correct gender inequality, we must be able to quantify it. In this explanation, we shall explore one such measure used to quantify gender inequality, the gender inequality index.

Gender inequality index definition

Gender inequality has been ongoing in society and has been acknowledged as one of the more significant barriers to achieving human development. As a result, measures such as the gender-related development index (GDI) and the gender empowerment measure (GEM) were developed and have formed part of the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP's) Human Development Report (HDR) starting in 1998, in an attempt to quantify different aspects of gender inequality.

However, it was recognized that there were gaps in these measures. Consequently, as a response to the methodological and conceptual limitations of the GDI and the GEM, the gender inequality index (GII) was introduced by the UNDP in its 2010 annual HDR. The GII considered new aspects of gender inequality that were not included in the other two gender-related indicators¹.

Gender inequality index calculation

As previously stated, the GII has 3 dimensions- reproductive health, political empowerment, and labour market.

Reproductive health

Reproductive health is calculated by looking at the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) and the adolescent fertility rate (AFR) using the following equation:

Political empowerment

Political empowerment is found by looking at the share of parliamentary seats held by men and women (PR) and the ratio of women and men aged 25 and over who have achieved a secondary or higher education (SE) using the equation below.

M= Male

F= Female

Labour market

The labour market participation rate (LFPR) for men and women over 15 years of age is calculated by the following equation. This dimension ignores unpaid work done by women, e.g. in the household.

M= Male

F= Female

Finding the gender inequality index

After the individual dimensions have been calculated, the GII is found using the four steps below.

Step 1

Aggregate across the dimensions for each gender group using the geometric mean.

M= Male

F= Female

G= Geometric mean

Step 2

Aggregate across gender groups using the harmonic mean. This shows inequalities and allows for a relationship among the dimensions.

M= Male

F= Female

G= Geometric mean

Step 3

Calculate the geometric mean of the arithmetic mean for each dimension.

M= Male

F= Female

G= Geometric mean

Step 4

Calculate the GII.

M= Male

F= Female

G= Geometric mean

Gender inequality index ranking

The GII value ranges from 0 (no inequality) to 1 (complete inequality). Therefore, the higher the value of the GII, the greater the disparity between males and females and vice versa. The GII, as presented in the Human Development Report, ranks 170 countries. Generally, the rankings show that countries with high human development, based on their Human Development Index (HDI) score, have GII values which are closer to 0. In contrast, the countries with lower HDI scores have GII values which are closer to 1.

There are exceptions to this, of course. For example, in the 2021/2022 Human Development Report, Tonga, which ranks in the high HDI category, ranks almost last in the GII category at 160th place out of 170. Similarly, Rwanda, which ranks low in HDI (165th place), ranks in 93rd place in terms of GII⁵.

In terms of the overall rankings for individual countries, Denmark ranks 1st with a GII value of 0.03, while Yemen ranks last (170th) with a GII value of 0.820. Looking at GII scores among world regions, we will see that Europe and Central Asia rank first with an average GII of 0.227. Next comes East Asia and the Pacific, with an average GII value of 0.337. Latin America and the Caribbean rank 3rd with an average GII of 0.381, South Asia 4th with 0.508, and Sub-saharan Africa 5th with an average GII of 0.569. There is also a significant difference in the average GII of the states that make up the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) at 0.185 compared to the least developed countries in the world with a GII value of 0.562⁵.

Gender inequality index map

As previously stated, there are variations in GII values throughout the world. Typically, we see that countries with GII values closer to 0 are those with higher HDI values. Spatially, it is expressed as those nations in the global "north" having GII values closer to zero (less gender inequality). In comparison, those in the global "south" have GII values closer to 1 (higher gender inequality).

Fig. 1 - global GII values, 2021

Gender inequality index example

Let us look at two examples. One from a country which ranks in the top 30 as it relates to GII and the other from a nation that ranks in the bottom 10.

United Kingdom

According to the 2021/2022 Human Development Report, the United Kingdom has a GII score of 0.098, ranking 27th out of the 170 countries for which the gender inequality index is measured. This represents an improvement over its 2019 placement of 31st, when it had a GII value of 0.118. The UK's GII value is lower (i.e. there is less inequality) than the average GII value for the OECD and the Europe and Central Asia region - both of which the UK is a member.

With regard to the country's individual indicators for 2021, the maternal mortality ratio for the UK was 7 deaths per 100,000, and the adolescent birth rate stood at 10.5 births per 1000 women ages 15-19. In the UK, women held 31.1% of the seats in parliament. Exactly 99.8% of men and women have at least some secondary education at 25 or older. Further, the labour force participation rate stood at 67.1% for men and 58.0% for women⁵.

Fig. 2 - number of members of the UK House of Lords by gender (1998-2021)

Mauritania

In 2021, Mauritania ranked 161st out of 170 countries for which GII is measured, with a value of 0.632. This is lower than the average GII value for sub-Saharan Africa (0.569). Their 2021 ranking is ten places below their 2019 ranking of 151; however, it must be appreciated that the value of the GII in the country actually slightly improved from 0.634 in 2019 to its 0.632 value in 2021. Therefore, from the lower ranking, it can be inferred that Mauritania's progress towards improving this measurement of gender equality has lagged behind other nations which ranked lower than it in 2019.

When we look at the individual indicators, in 2021, Mauritania's maternal mortality ratio was 766 deaths per 100,000, and its adolescent birth rate stood at 78 births per 1000 women ages 15-19. Here, women held 20.3% of the seats in parliament. The proportion of males with some secondary education at 25 or older was 21.9%, while for females, it was 15.5%. Additionally, the labour force participation rate stood at 62.2% for men and 27.4% for women.