Gender, Developmental Indicators &

Empowerment

Dr. Sujit Kumar Bala

Professor
Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM)
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
(BUET)
Gender, Developmental Indicators & Empowerment

 The objectives of the lecture:

o To understand the nature and role of gender disaggregated data and
indicators in gender analysis
o To develop skills in applying gender indicators in different gender
analysis like gender empowerment and assess their strengths and
weaknesses for different contexts
 Development Indicators
&
Gender Sensitive Indicators
 Indicators

 Indicators are spotlights and important to:

o inform people about the level of economic and social well-being;

o monitor distribution & level economic and social well-being – current

state & changes, between groups, & over time;
o assess progress toward goals or achievement of policy or project
objectives
 Indicators are the currency of policy
 Why Do We Use Gender Sensitive
Indicators?

o To identify the extent of gender inequality at a certain point of time.

o To assist in the identification of the causes for inequality.

o To raise consciousness about gender differences and inequalities e.g.

in the community and amongst policy makers.
o To persuade policy makers to develop policies to promote gender
equity goals.
o To monitor the success of policies/projects over time.
 Criteria for Gender Sensitive Indicators

• Need gender disaggregation such as Sex, Age, Ethnicity,

Socioeconomic Grouping – four most basic disaggregation
• They must report over time …

• They must include comparators e.g., male to female, females in one

country to females in another country, etc.
• They must be resulted from participatory process and development…

• Must be accompanied by gender analysis and related questions…

• Source: Beck T. Using the Gender-sensitive Indicators: A Reference

Manual for Governments and Other Stakeholders. United Kingdom:
Commonwealth Secretariat, 1999.
 Gender Sensitive Indicators
 Gender-sensitive indicators at national level are:
i. Population composition and change

ii. Human settlements and geographical distribution

iii. Households and families, marital status, fertility

iv. Learning in formal and non-formal education

v. Health, health services, nutrition

vi. Economic activity and labor force participation

vii. Access to land, equipment and credit

viii. Legal rights and political power

ix. Violence against women

x. Macroeconomic policy and gender

 Censuses and similar surveys usually cover indicator groups 1-6.
 Indicators in groups 7-10 come from other sources, such as CEDAW and special surveys
such as time use studies, and a revised System of National Accounts.
 Development Indicators

 Shifting from mainly economic to more diverse and specific indicators

of social and economic well-being.
 Concept of ‘human development’ (UNDP 1990)

 Gradually collecting gender disaggregated data to measure gender

inequalities - becoming ‘mainstream’ in 1995
Shifts in Development Indicators
 Human Development Index

 HDI values range from 0 to 1, with 1 indicating the highest level of

well-being.
 Closer the value to zero, the more severe the levels of deprivation.
 Any differences between men and women are not visible.
 Disaggregated Data

o Data that is disaggregated by certain criteria.

o It could be on a variety of indicators, for example, age, wealth or

ethnicity.
o Data that is disaggregated by gender is required so that we can
compare the social and economic position of men and women.
o This is called gender disaggregated data (or sometimes: sex
disaggregated data)
 UN Gender-related Development
Index (GDI)

o Gender-related Development Index (GDI) adjusts HDI for gender

inequality in life expectancy, education and income and therefore allows
us to see the differences between men and women.
o This index also ranks countries, provinces and districts within a
country.
o The values for GDI range between 0 and 1 whereby 1 is the highest level
of gender adjusted well-being, and values closer to zero indicate
increasing levels of gender-adjusted deprivation.
Gender Development Indicators
 Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM)

o GEM determines gender inequality in opportunities:

o Political participation and decision-making power

o Economic participation and decision making power

o Power over economic resources

Gender Empowerment Measures
 Gender Sensitive Indicators

o For in-depth gender analysis, a wide variety of gender sensitive data is

required.
o Beck defines a gender sensitive indicator as “an indicator that captures
gender related changes in society over time” which must be “relative to
some agreed normative standard or explicit reference group” (Beck
1999:7)
Examples of gender sensitive indicators