Human Development Reports - United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

A new measure of gender inequality

The disadvantages facing women and girls are a major source of inequality. All too often, women and girls are discriminated against in health, education and the labour market—with negative repercussions for their freedoms. We introduce a new measure of these inequalities built on the same framework as the HDI and the IHDI— to better expose differences in the distribution of achievements between women and men (figure 5.4 of the Report). The Gender Inequality Index shows that:

• Gender inequality varies tremendously across countries—the losses in achievement due to gender inequality (not directly comparable to total inequality losses because different variables are used) range from 17 percent to 85 percent. The Netherlands tops the list of the most gender-equal countries, followed by Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland.
• Countries with unequal distribution of human development also experience high inequality between women and men, and countries with high gender inequality also experience unequal distribution of human development. Among the countries doing very badly on both fronts are Central African Republic, Haiti and Mozambique.

• Read more
• Read the 2010 Report Chapter 5 - Innovations in measuring inequality and poverty [2,277 KB]

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2011 Report