UNDP /UNECE NHDR Workshop on Statistical Indicators Bratislava, 5-10 May 2003

Gender Statistics and Disaggregation by Sex

Dono Abdurazakova, Gender Adviser UNDP Regional Support Centre, Bratislava

Purpose
- to enlarge on disaggregation by sex - to assess the strength and weaknesses of the proposed HD indicators from gender perspective

..Sex
Refers to biological differences between women and men. Universal and unchangeable

Gender
refers to social roles of women and men Womens and mens role can be interchangeable Change over time and between cultures

Gender issues
Relate to all aspects of womens and mens lives, their different needs and interests, access to resources and different opportunities

What is Gender Mainstreaming?

the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in all areas and at all levels. It is a strategy for making womens as well as mens concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated. The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality. The Report of the Economic and Social Council for 1997. United Nations, 1997.

Gender statistics: the issue

Gender statistics are Gender statistics are statistics that not necessarily and adequately reflect not only statistics the situation of disaggregated by women and men in sex. ALL policy areas they allow for a systematic study of gender differentials and gender issues

Gender statistics are built on

ALL statistics on individuals collected by sex; All variables and characteristics analyzed and presented by sex; All statistics reflecting gender issues

Disaggregation : Arguments
Primary and overall category for analysis and classification Crucial element in policies, plans and strategies, as includes specific problems Particularly important to understand hidden links Tracking progress :monitoring and evaluation of policies and action

Why disaggregation by gender needed?

Helps to combat with wrong perceptions Raises awareness and consciousness Persuades policy makers Provides the basis for unbiased policy decisions Helps promote change

NHDR

National HDRs Have an important awareness raising and policy advocacy role to play in addressing the challenges of Putting people first. This approach cannot afford to deal with averages .

Are gender disparities growing in the region?

the highest rates of suicides (up to 90%) committed by men in some parts of the region worldwide; the biggest gap worldwide in life expectancy (women outlive men almost 16 years in some regions of Russia, 2000); diverse tendencies from gender perspective in education with feminization of higher education in some countries combined with dramatically low levels of womens representation and participation in political life and top decision-making.

Limitations
The indicators are limited in scope (how to measure care, impact of domestic violence or emotional implications of discrimination?) Closing gender gaps doesnt always mean equal empowerment or benefits for all

EDUCATION: Ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education (MDGs)
University Degrees , by sex, %, 1998-99

Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus Georgia Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Moldova Ukraine Uzbekistan

47 72 76 49 57 51 56 52 38

53 28 24 51 43 49 44 48 62

Source: UNDP/UNECE Gender statistics website http://www.unece.org

Womens average monthly income as percentage of mens

Armenia Belarus Moldova

n/a 76% n/a

; ; ; ;

Azerbaijan 86% Georgia Ukraine 53% 74% Kyrgyzstan 78%

Kazakhstan 72 %

Uzbekistan 81% (in 1995)

Source: UNDP/UNECE Gender statistics website http://www.unece.org

Working population
Country Year % women % men

Armenia

1998 Azerbaijan 1998 Belarus 1999 Georgia 1998

Kazakhstan

48% 48% 52% 48% 46% 46% 51% 51% 44%

52% 52% 48% 52% 54% 54% 49% 49% 56%

1997 Kyrgyzstan 1998 Moldova 1998 Ukraine 1999 Uzbekistan 1997

Source: UNDP/UNECE Gender statistics website http://www.unece.org

Seats in parliament
Country Year % women % men

Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus Georgia Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Moldova Ukraine Uzbekistan

2000 2000 2000 2000 2000 2000 2000 2000 2000

3% 12% 5% 7% 10% 1% 9% 8% 7%

97% 88% 95% 93% 90% 99% 91% 92% 93%

Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union, http://www.ipu.org

Challenges
To train more people to be effective users of gender-sensitive indicators To further strengthen capacities of national statistical offices To create new indicators and indices To improve existing databases