PHA-Exchange> Changing Social Institutions to Improve the Status of Women in Developing Countries

[claudio at hcmc.netnam.vn]

from "Ruggiero, Mrs. Ana Lucia (WDC)" <ruglucia at PAHO.ORG> -----

Changing Social Institutions to Improve the Status of Women in Developing 
Countries

 Johannes Jütting and Christian Morrisson

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) POLICY BRIEF No. 
27 - 2005

 Available online at: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/24/32/35155725.pdf 
<http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/24/32/35155725.pdf>  

 ".....To address gender inequality in a country properly requires knowledge 
of the sources and the depth of discrimination. Valid indicators that capture 
various aspects of gender inequality are indispensable for informed policy 
making. The existing indicators tend to focus on gender disparities related to 
access to education, health care, political representation, earnings or income 
and so forth.

 

The aggregate indices that have received the most attention are the UNDP's 
Gender Development Index (GDI) and the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM). The 
UNDP's Human Development Reports cover both regularly for individual 
countries. The GDI is an unweighted average of three indices that measure 
gender differences in terms of life expectancy at birth, gross enrolment and 
literacy rates and earned income. The GEM is an unweighted average of three 
other variables reflecting the importance of women in society. They include 
the percentage of women in parliament, the male/female ratio among 
administrators, managers and professional and technical workers, and the 
female/male GDP per capita ratio calculated from female and male shares of 
earned income.

 

Both of these indices have a fundamental problem. They measure the results of 
gender discrimination rather than attempt to understand its underlying causes. 
The school enrolment ratio and the percentage of women among managers, for 
example, are useful in comparing different country situations, but neither 
explains why these differences arise. They ignore the institutional frameworks 
that govern the behaviour of people and hence the treatment of women. In most 
developing countries, especially poor ones, cultural practices, traditions, 
customs and social norms hold the keys to understanding the roots of gender 
discrimination...."

 

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