Promoting global gender equality and justice has been a key strategic initiative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) since 1995. The organisation uses the Gender Development Index (GDI) as a main metric for including the gender oriented development indices into the already existing human development factors. This report is aimed at identifying and evaluating the comparative insights which have been provided by the UNDP GDI into the challenge of establishing gender equality and gender justice on the global platform. This is done by delving into different related topics like multiculturalism and women’s rights, liberalism and women’s rights, religion and women’s rights , gender inequality and gender instance, gender based violence, gender mainstreaming, discrimination against women, gender based rights and women empowerment as existing in the global frontier. A section of the report is also dedicated towards a discussion made on the situations of different countries with respect to gender equality and parity establishment. The report is suitably concluded by summarising the discussion and highlighting the key findings from the essay. Also, suitable recommendations and future directions regarding the establishment and promotion of gender equality and gender justice are provided in the write up.
The Gender Development Index (GDI) is an index which has been designed for the purpose of measuring global gender equality. This index was introduced by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in its Human Development Report in the year 1995. Along with this another key index known as the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) was also coined by the UNDP in 1995. Both these indices are identified to be key metrics used in the assessment of human development index on a yearly basis. The main aim of these indices is to provide a gender oriented dimension to the existing metrics of the Human Development Index (HDI).
Human development is a key concept used within the arena of international development. Human development involves the studies regarding human condition with respect to capability approach and provision. As per the UNDP, human development is defined as the process of expanding the choices of people with the view of allowing them to lead a healthy and long life, to enjoy a proper standard of life and to be provided with educational facilities as well as political freedom, the core ingredients of self-respect and the primary human rights (Srinivasan, 1994). The HDI refers to the normalised measure for education, per capita income and life expectancy existing within the populations of countries across the world. The HDI is an established standard measure for wellbeing including human development and child welfare. This index is aimed at simplifying human development but at the same time it is a much complex metric than the other indices used in this domain.
The United Nations have set the eight Millennium Development Goals in September 2000. These goals are aimed at improving the overall human development aspects in different countries across the globe. These eight millennium development goals are given as follows:
• The eradication of hunger and extreme poverty.
• The achievement of universal primary educational facility provision.
• The empowerment of women and promotion of gender equality.
• The reduction of child mortality.
• The improvement of maternal health.
• The assurance of environmental sustainability.
• The development of global partnerships aimed at human development.
• The combating of HIV/ AIDs and other such contagious diseases.
It can be identified that the empowerment of the women sections in a society, the promotion of global gender equality and gender justice are included as key goals included in this plan.
The first measurement that was created by the UNDP for evaluating the gender related dimension of the HDI was the Gender Related Development Index (GDI). This metric is formally defined as a measure which is distribution sensitive in nature and which accounts for impacts of the human development factor of existing gender gaps within the three basic components of the HDI (Nussbaum, 2011). The GDI is a measurement provided to evaluate the human development achievements within a population of a nation through the accounting of disparities and gaps between the men and women groups in that specific population. The closer this index remains to 1, the lesser will be the gender gap and disparity level in the country (Nussbaum, 2000). The GDI measures the disparities and gaps on the basis of gender by considering three primary dimensions for measuring human development which are health, living standard and knowledge. This metric is defined to be distribution sensitive because it takes into consideration the general as well as average levels of wealth and wellbeing within the population of a nation and also focuses on how these wellbeing and wealth are distributed between the different strata existing within the population. The HDI, GDI and GEM were introduced as the rival metrics to the traditional income based metrics of development such the Gross National Product (GNP) and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The calculation of GDI is done by also considering the basic component indicators which are used in HDI estimation. The GDI is a ratio of the HDIs which is computed separately for male and female sections of the nation and uses the same methodologies which are used in the computation of HDI. This index is applied for directly measuring the gender gap existing within a population by representing the female HDI in a population as a percentage of male HDI within the population. The GDI as perceived by the UNDP is computed for a total of 161 countries. The UNDP segregates these countries in five broad groups on the basis of the absolute deviation identified from gender parity as defined in HDI values. This indicates that grouping of the countries is done by taking into equal consideration the gender gaps which favour males as well as those gender gaps which favour females in a society. The GDI points out the exact number of women which is lagging behind the male counterparts as well as identifies how much of each of the dimensions of human development have to be accessed or improved by the women section in a nation in order to reach an equal position as their male counterparts (Kabeer, 1994). This index is the strongest metric which can be consulted for identifying and evaluating the real gender gap prevailing in the human development achievements. As such, the GDI is often considered to be a highly useful index for designing national and international policy tools which are to be applied for reducing or closing the gaps existing between the male and female groups in a national population.
The gender differentials with respect to human development index are studied in the GDI. The GDI is employed to measure the achievement in human development on the basis of three variables with respect to males and females. These three variables are: a healthy and long life measured on the basis of life expectancy at birth, knowledge measured as per the combined ratio of primary, secondary and tertiary educational enrolment numbers and adult literacy rate, and the estimated earned income of the population in terms of United States dollar.
Figure1: The key dimensions and indicators of GDI
(Source: Hawken and Munck, 2009)
Misinterpretation and lack of relevant data are identified to be key drawbacks in both GDI and GEM computations. In order to overcome such drawbacks, a new index known as the Gender Inequality Index (GII) has been introduced by UNDP in 2010. The GII is another major metric used for assessing and evaluating gender equality and gender justice in the global arena. The GII is a metric used for measuring the inequalities which are faced by girls and women. This metric has been built on the similar frameworks as those of HDI and international HDI. This index is highly relevant in exposing the differences existing in the distribution of facilities and achievements between males and females. The GII is based on components like education attainment, labour market compositions, female specific health problems and political and economic anticipation. Also this index represents the key advancements made on the existing measures of global gender equality and gender equity and accounts for the different kinds of mutually exclusive and overlapping gender inequalities prevailing at the national level of human development (Klasen and Schuler, 2011). The analysis of the GII, GEM and GDI show that there are large losses identified in many societies which are caused by gender inequalities and disparities. Such disparities range as high as 70% in many Arab countries. It is also found that the female sections enjoy much lesser benefits and opportunities for health, work, education as well as living standard as compared to the male counterparts (Ranis, Stewart and Samman, 2006). The main drawback of GDI and GEM is that these metrics are built by combining the relative and absolute achievements in human development. Thus, a county which has a low income often scores poorly in the index value even if perfect gender parity exists in that country. Also, all the primary indicators used in the GDI and GEM reflect the urban elite bias factor which drives a difference of results between the developed and developing countries. The GDI and GEM often use measures which are more relevant to developed nations but are redundant in case of emerging economies. Lastly, there are extensive imputations used for filling missing data for GDI and GEM estimations which can result in the distortion of sensitive data like gender parity and gender equality in the country (Wilkinson, 2005).
As per the GDI provided for 161 countries in the Human Development Report published by the UNDP in 2015, women tend to experience various types of discriminations and disadvantages in almost all the countries included in the GDI computation (UNDP, 2015). This is true in case of health and wellbeing, economic opportunity, political opportunity, social standards of living as well as in education and employment. The female HDI values in the global arena average at about 8% lesser than the global male HDI values. In a regional context, it can be seen that largest gender gap prevails in South Asia with a value of 17%. The report segregates the countries in four broad heads which are the very high human development group, high human development group, medium human development group and low human development group. The gender gap is found to be 3% for the very high human development group countries and 17% in the low human development group countries. The female HDI values are found to be higher than the male HDI values in only 15 countries out of the total 161 countries. The GDI produced for the 168 members show that the level of achievements related to empowerment, labour market participation and reproductive health have been substantially eroded by the factor so gender disparity and inequality. A high GDI is representative of poor performance of the nation in terms of gender equality establishment and promotion. The very high human development group has an average GDI value of 0.197 whereas the low human development group has an average GDI of 0.586. It is also found that women sections are largely disadvantaged in political representation across the globe. On an average, women occupy around 21% of national parliament seats. While this number is 25% in Americas and the Caribbean, it is as low as 12% in the Arab State Parliaments where women are in general highly disadvantaged and discriminated. The poor access to reproductive and general health services is identified to be a major contributor of women mortality rates, especially in the developing nations (Branisa, Klasen and Ziegler, 2013). For example, the maternal mortality ratio is found to be 474 deaths for per 100,000 births in the Sub Saharan African regions. The high rates of maternal deaths can contribute significantly to the low human development life cycles due to the lack of maternal care for babies and new born children. The South Asian countries are found to demonstrate higher level of educational disparity between men and women. The largest gender gap in education is identified in South Asia with the measure being 15 percentage points. The countries belonging to the very high human development group are found to have a high gender parity varying from 86% to 88%. Labour force participations are highly disoriented in the Arab countries and Sub Saharan African countries in which the females are formed to live in the informal sector. It has been continuously noted in the study of human development that the manifestations of inequality within nations and societies are intricately related to the ‘gender’ factor. Un-freedoms are identified as factors which can lead to inequalities in a society. Gender bias is a main un-freedom factor which makes the women sections of the society to remain under privileged in terms of getting the access to basic entitlements and capacities which are necessary for leading a standardised, healthy and meaningful life (Baylis, Smith and Owens, 2014). The neglect made towards the female sections in a society are prevalent in all fields of human development including the allocation and provision of health care, education, employment opportunities, food and nutrition and income generation. All these factors are reflective of gender disparity and gender inequality. The mortality rate of females is found to be higher than that of males in the global level. The reason for this is identified to be the high level of gender bias existing in the domain of health care provision (Visvanathan, 1997). The advancements in social and economic progress in the global frontier should have resulted in the decline of biases against women. However, the biases against women seem to be increasing rather than decreasing. The high levels of capability deprivation in different countries have significantly contributed to the aggravation of gender inequality and injustice (Moller Okin, 2008). Sex selective abortion is a practice which is till date followed in many countries. This process ensures the elimination of female foetuses so that the birth of female children can be prevented. As a result of this, the shortfall of females relative to males had exceeded 100 million as of 2014. This aspect was termed as “missing women” and it acts as a major threat to the establishment of gender equality and parity on the global scale (Jones, 2014). Also, it can be seen from the GDI that substantive freedoms are easily accessible to the males but are often denied for the females (Nussbaum, 2008). The women sections have less access to medical attention and eat less as compared to the male section. Gender gaps with relation to education and employment opportunities are also found to be perceptible. In the social frontier, it is recognised that women have limited or no authority or say over the decision making aspects in households. In the political frontier, it is seen that females are often politically marginalised. These factors are reflective of gender disparity and also they contribute to gender disparity in a cyclical manner. Empowerment of women remains an elusive term till date because it has not been established in most societies in both developed and developing countries. The women sections are also found to be significantly lacking in terms of equal opportunities and treatment in work and education, life cycle capabilities, health and wellbeing as well as the access to a better standard of living. Women are much disadvantaged in the work domain in terms of preference, opportunities and pay scale. This is true in both paid and unpaid employment opportunities. In the arena of paid work opportunities, it is seen that women earn lesser than men, women are less engaged in workforce as compared to men, women are comparatively underrepresented in the decision making job profiles and senior management positions, and they have lesser earning levels and are often the victims of higher levels of vulnerabilities in work. In case of unpaid work, it is seen that women have to take the burden of higher shares of household work and care giving work. The load of unpaid work is more for a female than for a male and a highly disproportionate division of unpaid work is seen between a male and a female in a household (Molyneux and Razavi, 2012). Human vulnerability is a key factor which affects human development. It is identified from the Gender Equality Index that the human vulnerability factor is directly related to gender. The women sections of a nation are found to be more vulnerable towards the evils of the society like poverty, disengagement, violence, neglect, unemployment and overall lesser opportunities in almost every field (Gould, 2008).
In order to strengthen the human agencies and build high societal resiliency, it is crucial to take up human development initiatives and strategies which are built on multidimensional approaches. Such initiatives and strategies should combine job creation and income support along with extensive education opportunities and healthcare initiatives as well as other key interventions which can drive the development of the community as a whole. Such initiatives should be equal for all and should be aimed at promoting and establishing gender justice and gender equality in all aspects of human development so that the nations can be made unbiased towards the female sections. The provision of equal opportunities of knowledge, health, wellbeing and living conditions to the male and female counterparts existing within a national population are necessary for driving economic as well as social growth. Gender mainstreaming is a key strategy which is being used by international human development organisations to promote gender equality. The gender mainstreaming strategy refers to the mainstreaming of a gender based perspective which would enable the assessment of the implications of involving males and females in all planned actions such as policies, programmes and legislation at all levels and in all areas of global human development. This is a key human development strategy which can be implemented for the purpose of making the concerns and experiences of both males and females to be an integral aspect of the design development, implementation, monitoring , evaluation and review of the existing and proposed programmed and policies in all societal , political and economic domains such that both male and female entities can benefit equally the ultimate aim of such strategy is to achieve gender equality and gender justice and to ensure that inequality on the basis of gender is not perpetuated in any section of a society. Such kinds of initiatives are extremely necessary in the sphere of human development to ensure that balanced gender parity can be achieved in all the countries considered.