Click here for links on/for the 2013 Gender Inequality Index
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The U.N. (Development Program) released the 2013 Human Development Report (and the 2012 Human Development Index within it) a few days ago. It incorporates data from 2012 for the latest Gender Inequality Index (on pages 156-159). This index reflects gender inequality along three dimensions – reproductive health, empowerment, and the labor market – as rated by five indicators: maternal mortality and adolescent fertility for reproductive health, parliamentary representation and educational attainment for empowerment, and labor force participation for the labor market.
Of the 186 countries ranked in the 2012 Human Development Index, 148 of those countries are ranked in the 2012 Gender Inequality Index. The U.S. ranks #42, the U.K. ranks #34, Canada ranks #18, Australia ranks #17, New Zealand ranks #31, and South Africa ranks #90.[The UN Development Programme has several times now updated/changed some of their data/info. Please share relevant updates/changes in the comments.]
Also out of those 186 countries (for the 2012 Gender Inequality Index…), Netherlands ranks #1, Sweden ranks #2, Denmark and Switzerland rank #3, Norway ranks #5 (though as you might expect, Norway ranks #1 overall in Human Development), Finland and Germany rank #6, Slovenia ranks #8, France ranks #9, Iceland ranks #10, Italy ranks #11 and Belgium ranks #12.
In addition, out of those 186 countries (for the 2012 Gender Inequality Index…), India ranks #132, Saudi Arabia ranks #145, Afghanistan ranks #147, and Yemen ranks #148.
More UNDP links are down/changed again. Click here for links on/for the 2013 Gender Inequality Index
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Click here for a PDF of the full 2013 Human Development Report. The 2012 Gender Inequality Index is on pp. 156-159.
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Click here for a more detailed account of the Gender Inequality Index that includes indicator data from 2012 as well as previous (grouped) years. This is a new webpage containing more index statistics than previous webpages and PDF files. [Update, the UNDP deleted this webpage again, but did replace it with one that contains relevant data.]
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Unfortunately, the webpage with frequently asked questions (and answers) about the Gender Inequality Index seems no longer to exist among the United Nations Human Development Programme webpages. If anyone finds or has a link to it, please share it in the comments!
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What do readers think? All sorts of data here for all sorts of comments…
Feminist Philosophers 
Reblogged this on clausantan.
David, thanks so much for posting this information!
[…] time, we dropped out of the top 10. Well the HDI includes data from the Gender Inequality Index and Feminist Philosophers has more information on those numbers and how they were determined (Canada ranked 18th […]
[…] ranks #130 in the 2012 Gender Inequality Index and ranks #145 in the Human Development Index. (Also, click here for a PDF of Kenya’s composite indices for the 2011 Human Development […]
Jackie, you are welcome!
Interested readers might want to note that the link in the original post above for a PDF file that provides details on how the 2012 Gender Inequality Index was calculated is now working (it was not working for quite a while). So click here (and scroll down to “technical note 3”, pages 5-6) for a PDF file that provides details on how the 2012 Gender Inequality Index was calculated.
Some recent links on related/relevant matters (Links 1 & 2 are short but on point. Links 3 & 4 are more substantive/detailed):
1. When Women Are Denied Equal Rights, Everyone Is Worse Off
2. Najib: Govt targets 55pc women workforce
3. For Many Women Worldwide, the Biggest Threat Is at Home
4. Is sexism obscuring the cure to American poverty?
Workers in the field (and scholars collecting/analyzing data) keep learning all sorts of different and similar things that do and do not work. I keep finding that the video clip in this post on Kakenya Ntaiya and the Kakenya Center for Excellence really resonates with students who watch the whole 15 minutes and 42 seconds (at least in a classroom, for instance). – David Slutsky
What Bangladesh can teach the world
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“Despite slower economic growth, Bangladesh has achieved more rapid progress in human development than its neighbours India and Pakistan. Gender equality is a key factor in its success. The Bangladesh experience shows that gender equality is also key for the new development agenda”…
Since this post continues to attract a significant number of views each day, I have updated the original post above so that all of the links work appropriately. This required me to delete some links. The UN Development Programme has changed many of the links and PDF files provided on their webpages. What is now the second link (in the post above) is new and provides much indicator data in a more compact, or concisely organized, way. Interested readers with additional updates, please share them in the comments. – David Slutsky
Click here for info about and links to the 2013 Gender Inequality Index.
Do you have any idea how to access historical GII data without downloading the full report? I need the excell data but cant seem to find anything other than the most current data.
Good question. The UNDP keeps changing the URLs for webpages in ways either seemingly unsystematic or at least not easily transparent; same goes for other UN agencies that sometimes make internal documents available but just for a time and then the links change and/or go down. In the past I have frequently tracked them down and updated relevant posts/comments. I do not have time for this just now. If you find anything, please do post it (links, etc.) here in one or more additional comments. As you probably found, a quick look reveals the following:
– indicator data for the 2013 gender inequality index (from 2012 and prior years)
http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/table-4-gender-inequality-index
– link to “Download all data”
http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdr14_statisticaltables.xls