Methodology

MEASURING INEQUITY:
THE 2012 GENDER INEQUITY INDEX

The Gender Equity Index (GEI) is a composite index composed of the eleven indicators representing three dimensions that measure the gap between women and men in key social areas of education, empowerment and economic participation. An index is generated for each of these dimensions based on the values of the component indicators.

The ratio of female to male performance for each of the eleven indicators is computed and rescaled to generate a value ranging from 0 (corresponding to the lowest ratio) to 100 (corresponding to the highest ratio). The values are rescaled to standardize the range of the component indicators and, thus, eliminate discrepancies in computation process if one or two of the indicators are missing or not available. The indicators are also weighted according to population to account for disparities in the population share of women and men in a particular country and, thus, produce a more accurate measure of the size of the gap in social participation between women and men.  Since most countries have a greater number of women than men in their population, this weighting procedure is important in order not to under-represent the gap.

An index for each of the three dimensions (Education Index, Empowerment Index and Economic Index) is generated by computing the simple average of the rescales values of the component indicators. The GEI, in turn, is generated by computing the simple average of the three indices representing the three dimensions.

As a rule, the index for a particular dimension is generated if there are at least two indicators with available data (out of the three or four indicators). Otherwise, the index for the particular dimension is not computed, therefore, no GEI value is generated for the particular country.