Social Institutions and Gender Index

Last updated

The Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) is an index that measures discrimination against women. [1] It solely focuses on social institutions which are formal and informal laws, social norms and customary practices that impact the roles of women. [2] [3] The SIGI is a multifaceted measure that focuses on four dimensions: Discrimination in the family, Restricted physical integrity, Restricted access to productive and financial resources, and Restricted civil liberties. [3]

Contents

Construction

SIGI is based on a selection of indicators from the Gender, Institutions and Development (GID) Database. It specifically draws on the GID's social institutions variables that are grouped into five categories or sub-indices: Family Code, Physical Integrity, Civil Liberties, Son Preference (measured as the incidence of missing women), and Ownership Rights. Family code delineates the social institutions that have an effect on a woman's power to make household decisions regarding their family. Variables of this sub-index include financial inheritance, parental authority and marriage rights. The civil liberties aspect focuses on women's freedom with respects to social participation. Its variables include freedoms such as dress, and ability to move outside of the home for women.  Physical integrity includes variables that measure incidence of violence against women.  Female genital mutilation, laws banning sexual assault or rape, sexual harassment, and domestic violence, and women who are reported missing are all variables included in this measure. Ownership rights focuses on the access women have to property. Whether or not women are allowed to own land and or houses and their access to bank loans and credit are foci under this sub-index. Son preference, also sometimes referred to as missing women, consists of variables looking at gender bias in mortality including human trafficking and missing person reports. [4] [5] The index is an unweighted average of these 5 sub-indices and measures on a scale from 0 to 1 the level of gender inequality in social institutions (higher levels indicate greater inequality). Each term in the SIGI formula is squared to allow for partial comparison. The indicators that compose the SIGI would yield uniformly high or even perfect scores for OECD member countries, given that legal discrimination against women is not present in most of these countries. However, significant gender inequality may nevertheless exist in OECD member countries; therefore, SIGI scores are only calculated for non-OECD countries to avoid misleading comparisons. [2]

Applications

Econometric analysis using the SIGI have shown the significant impact of social institutions on gender equality outcomes. For example, higher levels of gender inequality in social institutions are strongly correlated to lower participation of women in paid labor. [3] However, higher levels of inequality are not necessarily associated with lower levels of per capita income. Some high-income countries in the Middle East and North Africa region, for example, have high levels of gender inequality. Education, on the other hand, seems to be a strong promoter of women's rights. The higher the percentage of women who can read and write, the lower the discrimination they suffer in social institutions. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feminist economics</span> Gender-aware branch of economics

Feminist economics is the critical study of economics and economies, with a focus on gender-aware and inclusive economic inquiry and policy analysis. Feminist economic researchers include academics, activists, policy theorists, and practitioners. Much feminist economic research focuses on topics that have been neglected in the field, such as care work, intimate partner violence, or on economic theories which could be improved through better incorporation of gendered effects and interactions, such as between paid and unpaid sectors of economies. Other feminist scholars have engaged in new forms of data collection and measurement such as the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), and more gender-aware theories such as the capabilities approach. Feminist economics is oriented towards the goal of "enhancing the well-being of children, women, and men in local, national, and transnational communities."

The Gender Development Index (GDI) is an index designed to measure gender equality.

The Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) is an index designed to measure gender equality. GEM is the United Nations Development Programme's attempt to measure the extent of gender inequality across the globe's countries, based on estimates of women's relative economic income, participation in high-paying positions with economic power, and access to professional and parliamentary positions. It was introduced at the same time as the Gender-related Development Index (GDI) but measures topics like empowerment that are not covered by that index. Since it was first adopted, the GEM has been employed in several academic studies related to empowerment as a reliable metric for comparing gender empowerment across different countries. It has also faced some harsh criticisms, and many alterations and alternatives have been proposed.

Gender inequality is the social phenomenon in which people are not treated equally on the basis of gender. This inequality can be caused by gender discrimination or sexism. The treatment may arise from distinctions regarding biology, psychology, or cultural norms prevalent in the society. Some of these distinctions are empirically grounded, while others appear to be social constructs. While current policies around the world cause inequality among individuals, it is women who are most affected. Gender inequality weakens women in many areas such as health, education, and business life. Studies show the different experiences of genders across many domains including education, life expectancy, personality, interests, family life, careers, and political affiliation. Gender inequality is experienced differently across different cultures and also affects non-binary people.

Gender inequality in India refers to health, education, economic and political inequalities between men and women in India. Various international gender inequality indices rank India differently on each of these factors, as well as on a composite basis, and these indices are controversial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Global Gender Gap Report</span> Index designed to measure gender equality

The Global Gender Gap Report is an index designed to measure gender equality. It was first published in 2006 by the World Economic Forum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ibrahim Index of African Governance</span> Annual assessment of African countries

The Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), established in 2007, provides an assessment of the quality of governance in African countries. The IIAG is compiled by 81 indicators and 265 variables from 54 data projects, coming from 47 independent African and international data sources. Published every two years, the IIAG is one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of data on African governance.

The legal status of polygamy varies widely around the world. Polygyny is legal in 58 out of nearly 200 sovereign states, the vast majority of them being Muslim-majority countries. Some countries that permit polygamy have restrictions, such as requiring the first wife to give her consent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Missing women</span> Fewer women than expected in a population

The term "missing women" indicates a shortfall in the number of women relative to the expected number of women in a region or country. It is most often measured through male-to-female sex ratios, and is theorized to be caused by sex-selective abortions, female infanticide, and inadequate healthcare and nutrition for female children. It is argued that technologies that enable prenatal sex selection, which have been commercially available since the 1970s, are a large impetus for missing female children.

Canada ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, education levels, gender equality, public services, public security and environmental sustainability. It ranks among the lowest of the most developed countries for housing affordability, healthcare services and foreign direct investment.

The OECD Gender, Institutions and Development (GID) Database, or GID-DB, contains more than 60 data indicators of gender equality. The GID-DB was introduced in 2006 by the OECD Development Centre to provide a data tool to help researchers and policy makers determine and analyze obstacles to women's social and economic development. It provides these gender-related data for up to 162 countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, thereby covering all regions and country-income-categories of the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gender Inequality Index</span> United Nations index for gender inequality

The Gender Inequality Index (GII) is an index for the measurement of gender disparity that was introduced in the 2010 Human Development Report 20th anniversary edition by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). According to the UNDP, this index is a composite measure to quantify the loss of achievement within a country due to gender inequality. It uses three dimensions to measure opportunity cost: reproductive health, empowerment, and labor market participation. The new index was introduced as an experimental measure to remedy the shortcomings of the previous indicators, the Gender Development Index (GDI) and the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), both of which were introduced in the 1995 Human Development Report.

In South Korea, gender inequality is derived from deeply rooted patriarchal ideologies with specifically defined gender-roles. While it remains especially prevalent in South Korea's economy and politics, gender inequality has decreased in healthcare and education.

Measures of gender equality or inequality are statistical tools employed to quantify the concept of gender equality.

Gender budgeting means preparing budgets or analyzing them from a gender perspective. Also referred to as gender-sensitive budgeting, this practice does not entail dividing budgets for women. It aims at dealing with budgetary gender inequality issues, including gender hierarchies and the discrepancies between women's and men's salaries. At its core, gender budgeting is a feminist policy with a primary goal of re-orienting the allocation of public resources, advocating for an advanced decision-making role for women in important issues, and securing equity in the distribution of resources between men and women. Gender budgeting allows governments to promote equality through fiscal policies by taking analyses of a budget's differing impacts on the sexes as well as setting goals or targets for equality and allocating funds to support those goals. This practice does not always target intentional discrimination but rather forces an awareness of the effects of financial schemes on all genders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gender inequality in Sri Lanka</span>

Gender inequality in Sri Lanka is centered on the inequalities that arise between men and women in Sri Lanka. Specifically, these inequalities affect many aspects of women's lives, starting with sex-selective abortions and male preferences, then education and schooling in childhood, which influence job opportunities, property rights, access to health and political participation in adulthood. While Sri Lanka is ranked well on several gender equality indices in comparison to other countries in the region, there are also some sources that question the verity of these indices. However, globally, Sri Lanka ranks relatively lower on gender equality indices. Overall, this pattern of social history that disempowers females produces a cycle of undervaluing females, providing only secondary access to health care and schooling and thus fewer opportunities to take on high level jobs or training, which then exacerbates the issue of low political participation and lowered social rights, a cycle studied and noted on by Dr. Elaine Enarson, a disaster sociologist studying the connection between disaster and the role of women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's empowerment</span> Giving rights, freedom to make decisions and strengthening women to stand on their own

Women's empowerment may be defined in several ways, including accepting women's viewpoints, making an effort to seek them and raising the status of women through education, awareness, literacy, and training. Women's empowerment equips and allows women to make life-determining decisions through the different societal problems. They may have the opportunity to re-define gender roles or other such roles, which allow them more freedom to pursue desired goals.

Even in the modern era, gender inequality remains an issue in Japan. In 2015, the country had a per-capita income of US$38,883, ranking 22nd of the 188 countries, and No. 18 in the Human Development Index. In the 2019 Gender Inequality Index report, it was ranked 17th out of the participating 162 countries, ahead of Germany, the UK and the US, performing especially well on the reproductive health and higher education attainment indices. Despite this, gender inequality still exists in Japan due to the persistence of gender norms in Japanese society rooted in traditional religious values and government reforms. Gender-based inequality manifests in various aspects from the family, or ie, to political representation, to education, playing particular roles in employment opportunities and income, and occurs largely as a result of defined roles in traditional and modern Japanese society. Inequality also lies within divorce of heterosexual couples and the marriage of same sex couples due to both a lack of protective divorce laws and the presence of restrictive marriage laws. In consequence to these traditional gender roles, self-rated health surveys show variances in reported poor health, population decline, reinforced gendered education and social expectations, and inequalities in the LGBTQ+ community.

Foreign aid for gender equality in Jordan includes programs funded by governments or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that aim to empower women, close gender based gaps in opportunity and experience, and promote equal access to education, economic empowerment, and political representation in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Gender inequality in Ukraine refers to economic, social, political and education inequalities between men and women of Ukraine experienced due to their gender. According to multiple reports it is an ongoing issue on each level of the Ukrainian society, where discrimination of women is an inevitable part of everyday life. The root causes of the circumstances are reportedly related to patriarchal attitudes and deeply entrenched gender stereotypes of the traditional Ukrainian culture. The cultural environment in Ukraine is aggravated by a poor rule of law, insufficient power of the social institutions and lack of political will.

References

  1. ↑ "OECD - Gender discrimination in social norms: Measuring the invisible". www.oecd.org. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  2. 1 2 Branisa, Boris; Klasen, Stephan; Ziegler, Maria; Drechsler, Denis; Jütting, Johannes (2014). "The Institutional Basis of Gender Inequality: The Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI)". Feminist Economics. 20 (2): 29–64. doi:10.1080/13545701.2013.850523. S2CID   154769451.
  3. 1 2 3 "Discrimination in Social Institutions and Women's Participation in the Labour Force - A Strong Relationship | Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI)". genderindex.org. Retrieved 2016-04-21.
  4. 1 2 "Social Institutions, Literacy and Growth | Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI)". genderindex.org. Retrieved 2016-04-21.
  5. ↑ Cho, Seo-Young (2011). "Integrating Equality - Globalization, Women's Rights, Son Preference and Human Trafficking". Discussion Papers No. 73.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.