Social Institutions and Gender Equality Indicators and Measurement Tools Denis Drechsler Johannes P. Jütting OECD Development Centre Rome December 2007

OECD members and partners Research and policy Policy communities Different actors: private, public, etc. A bridge between … OECD’s Knowledge Centre on Development

Gender Equality: Intrinsic and instrumental values One of the Millennium Development Goals A neglected driver for economic growth A double dividend for OECD countries More sustainable growth in non-OECD countries

Gender equality has many dimensions… Traditional Building Blocks of Gender Equality Political Empowerment Educational Attainment Health and Wellbeing Social Institutions Economic Participation …and also involves social institutions

The OECD Data Base on Gender Data on Social Institutions GID-DB The OECD Gender, Institutions and Development Data Base …and its innovation:

What are social institutions? Social institutions include norms, traditions and family law They may arguably be the most important determinants of gender equality: –They have generally been in existence for centuries; –They are extremely difficult to change; and –They frequently override formal laws and regulations They are difficult to identify and measure

Traditions Social Norms SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS Religious Practices Family Law Educational Attainment e.g. literacy rates Political Empowerment, e.g. voting rights Economic Participation and Opportunity e.g. labour force participation Health and Survival, e.g. life expectancy How do social institutions fit in? Gender Equality

12 innovative variables Social Institutions Variables Early marriage Polygamy Parental authority Inheritance Freedom of movement Obligation to wear a veil in public Female genital mutilation Violence against women Missing women Access to land Access to bank loans Access to property Ownership RightsCivil LibertiesPhysical IntegrityFamily Code

Gender inequality in social institutions Elevated discrimination in social institutions High discrimination in social institutions Low discrimination in social institutions Country not included

…not necessarily associated with per capita income Scale: 0 (minimum) to 1 (maximum) = level of discrimination through social institutions Source: GID Database

Social institutions and women in paid employment

Challenges to better data and measurement tools Dealing with various sources (international, national, non-governmental…) Confusion of policy makers? Proliferation of composite indicators What’s missing: –Involvement of citizens – bottom-up approach –Making statistics more attractive

The GID Data Base on Swivel

Data, explanations, comments…

…and specialised user groups

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