Inequalities of Gender: Education, work, and politics
| Author | Benjamin D. Hennig |
| Published date | 01 June 2019 |
| Date | 01 June 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/2041905819854312 |
| Subject Matter | In Focus |
20 POLITICAL INSIGHT • JUNE 2019
In Focus
Unequal treatment based on
gender is deeply embedded in
many countries. Gender studies
emerged as an important part
of academic research in the 1980s. The
issue of gender inequality also emerged on
the global political agenda, albeit slowly.
Gender-related measures became part of
the Human Development Index (HDI) by the
United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP).
In 2010, gender was eventually fully
integrated in the Human Development
Report (HDR) as the Gender Inequality
Index (GII). Unlike the HDI, the GII is
particularly aimed at exposing dierences
in achievements between women and men,
and at measuring the human development
costs of gender inequality. The higher the
value of the index is, the greater are the
disparities between females and males, and
the greater the loss to human emancipation
in general.
The GII captures disadvantages facing
women and girls, and discrimination in
health, education, political representation
and the labour market. The GII measures
reproductive health (maternal mortality,
and adolescent birth rates), empowerment
(proportion of parliamentary seats occupied
by females and proportion of adult females
and males aged 25 and older with at least
some secondary education) and economic
status (women’s labour force participation).
A higher value of the UN Gender
Inequality Index (GII) indicates greater
gender inequality. While gender inequality
remains a problem in the relatively more
equal societies, it is a major barrier to human
development in many developing states.
The worst performing nations are those
in the two highest quintiles of the data
(index values of 0.45 and above). As shown
in the gender equality map, the highest
inequalities are found in countries where
a substantial part of the global population
lives, most notably the African continent and
South- and Southeast Asia. The EU average
is 0.13, world average 0.45 and Arab States
average 0.55.
Men may well suer as well as women
in countries that tolerate greater levels
of gender inequality, with their partners
more likely to die in childbirth, the male-
dominated politics of the country being
more aggressive, and men often expected
to take on more traditional male roles rather
than having greater exibility. Gender
inequality is also geographically more
complex than such an index may suggest.
Two examples taken from the GII
demonstrate these varying spatial patterns,
providing an insight into how gender
inequality aects dierent aspects of society.
The two smaller maps show the gender
gaps in education and in the labour market
as expressed through the ratio of females
to males participating in both areas. The
education map shows the ratio for the
population aged 25 and above with at least
some secondary education. South American
countries, on average, have high levels
of gender inequality but they also, as this
map shows, have a high share of women
Inequalities of
Gender: Education,
work, and politics
Benjamin D. Hennig maps gender inequality around the world and
finds that the political sphere is often the most resistant to change.
participating in secondary education.
The labour market map shows the ratio
for the population aged 15 and above
participating in the labour force. Here large
parts of the Arab world stand out with a
female to male ratio of below 0.5, meaning
that more than two men for every woman
are participating in the labour market (up to
5.9:1 in Yemen). At the same time, these are
not the most unequal countries according
to the index.
These two examples show the complexity
of gender inequality and that achieving
change requires more than just addressing
single issues. Global eorts to achieve
change include the inclusion of gender
equality in the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDG) where goal ve aims to ‘achieve
gender equality and empower all women
and girls’ by 2030.
Accomplishing the goal of gender
equality requires leadership and political
action. Yet politics is one of the elds where
gender inequality is a major problem.
Political participation of women remains
overall low, and across the world the
number of women in leadership positions
is low.
In January 2019, just 11 women were
serving as head of state and ten as head of
government according to United Nations
statistics. An earlier UN study showed that
in 2017 only 18.3 per cent of government
ministers were women, often with very
particular portfolios such as environment,
natural resources, and energy, followed
by social sectors, such as social aairs,
education and the family.
The map of the gender gap in politics
shows the 2018 GII data for political
Political Insight May 2019.indd 20 08/05/2019 10:55
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