Gender inequality is a problem faced by all regions of the developed and developing world. In only four countries--Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden--do women have legal, social and economic rights roughly equal to those of men. The global consequences of gender inequality transcend all aspects of human welfare, including poverty, disease, education, and environmental health. As a result, empowering women has been identified as a necessary condition for improving the lives of the most vulnerable men, women and children worldwide.
Gender Equality by Region
Source: World Bank, 2003. Gender Equality and the Millennium Development Goals
Measuring Gender Equality
The United Nations Human Development Report attempts to measure the political, professional and economic participation by women in a given country via the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM). There are numerous indicators of gender equality, not all of which explicitly contribute to the GEM, including:
Political participation and decision making power. Worldwide, women are vastly underrepresented in both national and local assemblies. On average, women account for less than 15 percent of parliamentary seats, with only a marginal difference between developed and developing countries.
Education and literacy. In most low-income countries, girls are both less likely to attend school than boys and more likely to drop out. This disparity helps explain why two-thirds of the world's 781 million illiterates are women.
Income and labor. In industrial countries, women in the wage sector earn an average of 77 percent of what men earn, compared to 73 percent in developing countries. Only one-fifth of this wage gap can be attributed to gender differences in education, work experience, or job characteristics (World Bank, 2003). In addition, women on average account for a smaller proportion of paid employment in non-agricultural activities (professional and technical work) than men.
Gender Inequality in Education
http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/gender_equality_and_empowerment_of_
women_education_status
Map Designer: Hugo Ahlenius, UNEP/GRID-Arendal
Empowering Women to Achieve Sustainable Development
Empirical evidence from development work worldwide demonstrates that empowering women can yield enormous benefits for overall human welfare in poor countries. In most societies, women bear the primary responsibility for child care, household management, and environmental management. By empowering women through access to education, decision-making, and productive resources, countries can achieve enormous economic and social progress. For example:
Poverty reduction. Women account for two-thirds of the global population living under a dollar a day. Increased access to assets and resources can significantly increase household incomes. In African countries, female farmers are equally efficient as male farmers, but are less productive due to limited access to human capital and productive inputs such as land and fertilizer. Equalizing this disparity could increase total agricultural outputs in Sub-Saharan Africa by 6-20 percent.
Improved health. There is a strong negative correlation between a mother’s schooling and child mortality, because female education translates to better nutrition and care for children. In 63 countries between 1975 and 1995, gains in women’s education made the single largest contribution to reducing malnutrition. Decreasing gender gaps in literacy also translates to lower HIV infection rates--women currently account for roughly 70 percent of all HIV-infected 15-19 year olds in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Environmental sustainability. Women and girls in developing countries, and particularly in rural areas, are the primary users and collectors of natural resources for household use. When women are granted access to community decisions regarding the management of forest, water and other resources, increased environmental sustainability often ensues.
Mother's Education and Child Immunization
Source: World Bank, 2003. Gender Equality and the Millennium Development Goals
Promoting gender equality is one of eight Millennium Development Goals to be met by 2015. However, it has become apparent that empowering women has important spillover effects for the other goals of reducing poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary school education, reducing child and maternal mortality, combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases, and ensuring environmental sustainability, thereby inciting the need for a more gender responsive approach to development policy.
RELATED LINKS:
WomenWatch: UN Information and Resources on Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women
Gender Equality and the Millennium Development Goals
EarthTrends
Data Table: Gender and Development 2005
Population, Health, and Human Well-Being Searchable Database
