Gender Inequality Index November 27, 2010

Apparently, the recently released 2010 Human Development Report (HDR) added three new indices to the Human Development Index (HDI). They are The Multidimensional Poverty Index, The Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, and the Gender Inequality Index.

The Gender Inequality Index ranks countries by taking account of five indicators: 1) maternal mortality ratio, 2) adolescent fertility rate, 3) the share of parliamentary seats held by each sex, 4) secondary and higher education attainment levels, and 5) by women’s participation in the work force.

This index is (supposed to be) “a composite measure reflecting inequality in achievements between women and men in three dimensions: reproductive health, empowerment and the labour market.”

Saudi Arabia, which ranks 55 in the “high human development” category, ranks 128 in the Gender Inequality Index.

Here is the new Gender Inequality Index:
http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2010_EN_Table4_reprint.pdf

Here is the Human Development Report webpage on it:
http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/gii/

Many details here for different interpretations in different ways…

…Update from 2012 (and comment #70 below):

Out of 187 countries in the 2011 Human Development Index, the United States ranks 47, the United Kingdom ranks 34, and Canada ranks 20 in the 2011 Gender Inequality Index.

You can download a PDF of the 2011 Gender Inequality Index (with rank and indicators listed in the order of the more comprehensive Human Development Index) by clicking and/or saving here:
http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2011_EN_Table4.pdf

You can download a PDF that provides a graphical presentation of the human development indices, including the gender inequality indicators, here:
http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2011_EN_TechNotes.pdf

You can download a PDF of Frequently Asked Questions about the Gender Inequality Index here:
http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/FAQs_2011_GII.pdf

The Google Public Data Explorer “enables users to view a wide range of international development statistics, and then graph and contrast different sets of figures. Anyone with Internet access can now readily compare the HDI performance of (for example) China, Egypt, India, Norway, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, Rwanda, Sudan, Tunisia and the United States, graph the results, and share their newly created charts and maps with friends by email.”

Here is a webpage for this wonderful tool:
http://hdr.undp.org/en/data/explorer/

Readers can find some basic Google Public Data Help for using the tool here:
http://hdr.undp.org/en/data/explorer/launch/

Just the man to put in charge of cost-cutting

I knew Lord Browne– author of the Browne report which is shaping UK education policy– was a former BP exec. But I only recently learned that he’s said to be the man responsible for the brilliant cost-cutting decisions widely credited with giving rise to the Deepwater disaster.

Browne is described by journalist and author Tom Bower as irresponsible for a “ruthless” programme of cost-cutting at BP that compromised safety, and thus the man most responsible for a string of major accidents including the Texas City Refinery explosion (2005) and the Deepwater Horizon explosion (2010).

Yes, this is the man to turn to for wise counsel on efficiency savings.

Pete Seeger

This post is a comment on the one below it.  It’s like the 60′s all over again.  Maybe we can get the attack on education linked to the outrageous output in wars.

 

When will they ever learn?

You have a group of students, professors and no doubt the ever guilty ‘outside agitators’ all in London protesting possible tuition hikes.  So what do you do?  Here’s a great idea: charge** into the crowd with horses!  Won’t that show everyone you are right and they are wrong?

Now, here’s the thing that gets me:  at least since the student protests at Berkeley in 1964-65, we’ve had all sorts of police attacks on students.  Pretty much, they do not work.  There should be some lesson book that says something like, “Lots of people think of students as overly privileged, but few want to see police charging at young people who are our future.”  And, as it turns out in this case, highly vulnerable.  I.e., pregnant.  Or so it seems.

The mounted police charge** at about 1:06.

 

**The description of the police on horses as charging comes from the Guardian.

Just bleed all over the airport– it’s safer November 26, 2010

A self-described “rule follower” went through an airport pornoscanner wearing a panty-liner (she was menstruating). Because the hygienic item obscured the screener’s view of her vulva, she was made to endure a humiliating fondling, “so invasive that I was left crying and dealing with memories that I thought had been dealt with years ago of prior sexual assaults.”

For more, go here.

A bit of the Macy’s Day parade. November 25, 2010

Note, in case you noticed a change:  I got very tired of seeing the clips, and I assume others may have too.  So I’ve now put in links to them rather than having them in the post.

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As probably most people know, today is a national holiday in the US, Thanksgiving Day.  There’s a large and elaborate parade in NY City.  Now, if one is going to be in the parade, here’s a great way to look, it seems to me:

This is Takashi Murakami, whose art figures are appearing for the first time in the parade.  He plans to go along with them; the picture was taken in some studio involved in putting his float together.

It’s hard to find much about him in the parade; there is a short clip here:

The characters are KaiKai and KiKi.  And here’s a short talk about his work.  It has adult content, I guess.  I don’t know quite what to make of the two figures that give it this content; I think one might take them to be quite witty portrayals of a number of dimensions to a Western of idea of gods and goddesses. 

So what’s feminist about this post?  Probably not much, certainly not more than the 2008 Thanksgiving video, the wild turkey waltz.  If you missed it, it is worth a look.

What about Doctor/Rabbi couples?

LI sent a link to this fascinating list of titles, offered by Doctors Without Borders.

You’re required to choose a title, and they’ve offered quite a lot of titles. They’ve tried to accommodate lost of combinations for couples who might like to donate together, including same sex ones. But they’ve nonetheless omitted quite a few possibilities. to name just a few: it seems that judges, if coupled, must be coupled with a bearer of ‘Mr’ or ‘Mrs’– not ‘Ms’, or ‘Dr.’ Even other judges are impermissible. Rabbis, if coupled, must be coupled with a bearer of ‘Mr’ or ‘Mrs’– not ‘Ms’, ‘Dr’, ‘Judge’ or ‘Rabbi’. Doctors’ partners have a wider range of titles than judges partners. And anyone who goes by ‘Miss’ had better not try to donate as part of a couple.

Reason number 376 to just stop using titles.

International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

is today.

“My UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign, and the Network of Men Leaders I launched last year, have generated welcome momentum and engagement. The word is spreading: violence against women and girls has no place in any society, and impunity for perpetrators must no longer be tolerated. On this International Day, I urge all – Governments, civil society, the corporate sector, individuals – to take responsibility for eradicating violence against women and girls.”

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Message for the International Day for the
Elimination of VIolence against Women
25 November 2010

Save Philosophy at Howard

There’s now a petition to save Philosophy at Howard University:

The Department of Philosophy at Howard University is in danger of being shut down. The administration is poised to fold this BA and MA degree granting department into an interdisciplinary program offering only core and service courses.

This will mark the end of the only graduate degree program in philosophy at an HBCU; it will weaken the university’s commitment to the kind of humanistic self-examination that underwrote the US black freedom movement; and it will repudiate the legacy of philosophy at Howard, a legacy forged by the likes of Alain Locke, one of the central figures in the Harlem Renaissance.

Please help us encourage Howard’s president to strengthen philosophy rather than abolish it.

Go sign it!

Hypatia announcement

from editor Alison Wylie:

Hypatia 25th: Special Issue and Retrospective Virtual Issue
November 24, 2010

It’s been just over a year since the Hypatia 25th Anniversary conference, and we’ve now published the final issue of Volume 25: the Anniversary Special Issue, “Feminist Legacies / Feminist Futures” (25.4).

We’ve also assembled a 25th Anniversary Retrospective Virtual Issue: a selection of articles published by Hypatia since the mid-1980s nominated by Hypatia readers over the last year as pivotal to their own thinking and especially important in the development of feminist philosophy. Check out the introduction (a separate link) for some compelling for quotes from the nominations.

Both are available online – OPEN ACCESS – through Wiley-Blackwell’s Online Library. All the links, and background on these projects, are available on the Hypatia editorial office website. Do please spread the news!

Hypatia editorial office: OnLine News

And…should you want to order individual copies of the 25th Anniversary Special Issue (25.4), you can get them through the Wiley-Blackwell subscription page (under “Back Issue Information” – Single Issues) at the personal subscription rate of $12.50 per issue.

WB Hypatia Online Library

WB Subscriptions / Single Issue orders

Here’s to a vibrant 25 years to come!

Alison Wylie
on behalf of the Hypatia editorial team