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

[Claudio]

From: Ruggiero, Mrs. Ana Lucia (WDC) 


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 

 

"...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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