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| Date Added to Site: 2nd May 2001 | ||
| Short Summary | Long Summary | ||
| Title | A Quick Guide to Using Gender Sensitive Indicators: A Reference Manual for Governments and Other Stakeholders | |
| Author | Beck, T. | |
| Publication Date | June 1999 | |
| Publisher | Commonwealth Secretariat | |
| Volume | Gender Management System Series | |
| Series | Gender Management System Series | |
| Donor | Commonwealth Secretariat | |
| Long Summary | To advance gender equality and equity, accurate
and relevant data on the status of women and men and gender
relations needs to be collected. Such data makes gender biases more
visible and facilitates effective policy-making in response. The
need for sex-disaggregated data has been stressed in numerous
international conventions and declarations, including the Beijing
Platform for Action from the Fourth United Nations (UN) World
Conference on Women in 1995 and the Commonwealth Plan of Action on
Gender and Development of the same year. This guide aims to assist
governments in the selection, use and dissemination of
gender-sensitive indicators at national level. It is also relevant
to NGOs, women's groups, professional associations, academics and
others committed to promoting gender equality. A gender-sensitive indicator captures gender-related changes in a society over time, whereas a gender statistic only provides factual information about the status of women or men at a given time. Main sources of gender equality data are reviewed, including censuses and labour force surveys, household surveys, time-use studies, system of national accounts and unpaid work, and Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (CEDAW) reporting. Some key work on gender sensitive indicators by the UN and donors are also analysed (e.g. Gender-related Development Index (GDI) and Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM). Limitations of gender indicators include: - Their inability to reflect wider social patterns (e.g. why gender relations have been shaped in a particular way and how they can be changed). - Infrequent collection, sex bias, poor enumeration, and imprecise definitions of national data, on which gender indicators are based. - The same indicator may be interpreted differently depending on the setting. - Lack of participation from civil society, NGOs and even governments in the development of indicators (often done by specialists) leads to indicators not being reflective of the general population's views and cultural dimensions. - Statisticians, economists and others involved with data collection and analysis may not be gender sensitive. The following are recommended to overcome the above limitations: - Complement indicator systems with gender analysis that examines the social relations between men and women and features of society that reinforce gender inequality. - Take care in defining the benchmark against which any change is measured, and in comparing gender equality between countries. - Provide gender training for statisticians, economists and others within the census and survey systems, as well as for the enumerators and researchers carrying them out at local level. - Encourage greater community participation and consultation in the development and defining of gender indicators. This Quick Guide is a short version of 'Using Gender-sensitive Indicators. A reference manual for governments and other stakeholders' (1999) available at: http://www.thecommonwealth.org/shared_asp_files/uploadedfiles/{D30AA2D0-B43E-405A-B2F0-BD270BCEFBA3}_ugsi_ref.pdf | |
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