The methodology of the index has remained stable since its original conception in 2006, providing a basis for robust cross-country and time-series analysis. This year’s edition doesn’t introduce any change in the methodology. The 2020 results, therefore, can be seamlessly compared with those from previous years

Three Underlying Concepts

There are three basic concepts underlying the Global Gender Gap Index, forming the basis of how indicators were chosen, how the data is treated and how the scale can be used. First, the index focuses on measuring gaps rather than levels. Second, it captures gaps in outcome variables rather than gaps in input variables. Third, it ranks countries according to gender equality rather than women’s empowerment

Gaps vs. levels

The index is designed to measure gender-based gaps in access to resources and opportunities in countries, rather than the actual levels of the available resources and opportunities in those countries. We do this to disassociate the Global Gender Gap Index from countries’ levels of development. In other words, the index is constructed to rank countries on their gender gaps not on their development level. For example, rich countries, generally speaking, are able to offer more education and health opportunities to all members of society, although this is quite independent of the gender-related gaps that may exist within those higher levels of health or education. The Global Gender Gap Index rewards countries for smaller gaps in access to these resources, regardless of the overall level of resources. Thus, in the case of education, for example, the index penalizes or rewards countries based on the size of the gap between male and female enrolment rates, but not for the overall levels of education in the country.

Outcomes versus inputs

The second basic concept underlying the Global Gender Gap Index is that it evaluates countries based on outcomes rather than inputs or means. Our aim is to provide a snapshot of where men and women stand with regard to some fundamental outcome indicators related to basic rights such as health, education, economic participation and political empowerment. Indicators related to country-specific policies, rights, culture or customs—factors that we consider “input” or “means” indicators—are not included in the index but are discussed further in the analytic sections of this chapter, as well as featured in the report’s Country Profiles. For example, the Index includes an indicator comparing the gap between men and women in high-skilled jobs such as legislators, senior officials and managers (an outcome indicator) but does not include data on the length of maternity leave (a policy indicator). This approach has contributed significantly to the Index’s distinctiveness over the years and, we believe, continues to provide the most objective basis for discussing underlying contextual factors.¹

Gender equality vs. women’s empowerment

The third distinguishing feature of the Global Gender Gap Index is that it ranks countries according to their proximity to gender equality rather than to women’s empowerment. Our aim is to focus on whether the gap between women and men in the chosen indicators has declined, rather than whether women are winning the so-called “battle of the sexes”. Hence, the index rewards countries that reach the point where outcomes for women equal those for men, but it neither rewards nor penalizes cases in which women are outperforming men in particular indicators in some countries. Thus, a country that has higher enrolment for girls rather than boys in secondary school will score equal to a country where boys’ and girls’ enrolment is the same.

The Four Subindexes

The Global Gender Gap Index examines the gap between men and women across four fundamental categories (subindexes): Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. Table B1 displays all four of these subindexes and the 14 indicators that compose them, along with the sources of data used for each.

Economic Participation and Opportunity

This subindex contains three concepts: the participation gap, the remuneration gap and the advancement gap. The participation gap is captured using the difference between women and men in labour force participation rates. The remuneration gap is captured through a hard data indicator (ratio of estimated female-to-male earned income)² and a qualitative indicator gathered through the World Economic Forum’s annual Executive Opinion Survey (wage equality for similar work).³ Finally, the gap between the advancement of women and men is captured through two hard data statistics (the ratio of women to men among legislators, senior officials and managers, and the ratio of women to men among technical and professional workers).

Educational Attainment

This subindex captures the gap between women’s and men’s current access to education through ratios of women to men in primary-, secondary- and tertiary-level education. A longer-term view of the country’s ability to educate women and men in equal numbers is captured through the ratio of the female literacy rate to the male literacy rate.

Health and Survival

This subindex provides an overview of the differences between women’s and men’s health through the use of two indicators. The first is the sex ratio at birth, which aims specifically to capture the phenomenon of “missing women”, prevalent in many countries with a strong son preference.⁴ Second, we use the gap between women’s and men’s healthy life expectancy. This measure provides an estimate of the number of years that women and men can expect to live in good health by taking into account the years lost to violence, disease, malnutrition and other relevant factors.

Political Empowerment

This subindex measures the gap between men and women at the highest level of political decision-making through the ratio of women to men in ministerial positions and the ratio of women to men in parliamentary positions. In addition, we’ve included the ratio of women to men in terms of years in executive office (prime minister or president) for the last 50 years. A clear drawback in this category is the absence of any indicators capturing differences between the participation of women and men at local levels of government. Should such data become available at a globally comparative level in future years, it will be considered for inclusion in the index.

Table B1: Structure of the Global Gender Gap Index, 2020

Table B2: Calculation of weights within each subindex

Construction of the Index

The overall Global Gender Gap Index is constructed using a four-step process, outlined below. Some of the indicators listed in Table 1 require specific standardization or modification in order to be used in the Index. For further information on the indicator-specific calculations, please refer to Section B of this Appendix.

Step 1. Convert to ratios: Initially, all data is converted to female-to-male ratios. For example, a country with 20% of women in ministerial positions is assigned a ratio of 20 women to 80 men, thus a value of 0.25. This is to ensure that the Index is capturing gaps between women and men’s attainment levels, rather than the levels themselves.

Step 2. Data truncation at equality benchmark: The ratios obtained above are truncated at the “equality benchmark”. For all indicators, except the two health indicators, this equality benchmark is considered to be 1, meaning equal numbers of women and men. In the case of sex ratio at birth, the equality benchmark is set at 0.944,⁵ and in the case of healthy life expectancy the equality benchmark is set at 1.06⁶ to capture that fact that women tend to naturally live longer than men. As such, parity is considered as achieved if, on average, women live five years longer than men. Truncating the data at the equality benchmarks for each assigns the same score to a country that has reached parity between women and men and one where women have surpassed men. The type of rating scale chosen determines whether the Index is rewarding women’s empowerment or gender equality.⁷ To capture gender equality, two possible scales were considered. One was a negative-positive scale capturing the size and direction of the gender gap. This scale penalizes either men’s advantage over women or women’s advantage over men and gives the highest points to absolute equality. The second choice was a one-sided scale that measures how close women are to reaching parity with men but does not reward or penalize countries for having a gender gap in the other direction. We find the one-sided scale more appropriate for our purposes, as it does not reward countries for having exceeded the parity benchmark. However, disparities in either direction are recorded in the Country Profiles.

Step 3. Calculation of subindex scores: Each of the four subindexes is computed as the weighted average of the underlying individual indicators. Averaging the different indicators would implicitly give more weight to the measure that exhibits the largest variability or standard deviation. We therefore first normalize the indicators by equalizing their standard deviations. For example, within the Educational Attainment subindex, standard deviations for each of the four indicators are calculated. Then we determine what a 1% point change would translate to in terms of standard deviations by dividing 0.01 by the standard deviation for each indicator. These four values are then used as weights to calculate the weighted average of the four indicators.

This way of weighting indicators allows us to make sure that each indicator has the same relative impact on the subindex. For example, an indicator with a small variability or standard deviation, such as primary enrolment rate, gets a larger weight within the Educational Attainment subindex than an indicator with a larger variability, such as tertiary enrolment rate. Therefore, a country with a large gender gap in primary education (an indicator where most countries have achieved near-parity between women and men) will be more heavily penalized. Similarly, in the case of the sex ratio at birth indicator (within the Health and Survival subindex), where most countries have a very high sex ratio and the spread of the data is small, the larger weight will penalize more heavily those countries that deviate from this value. Table B2 displays the values of the weights used.⁸

Step 4. Calculation of final scores: For all subindexes, the highest possible score is 1 (gender parity) and the lowest possible score is 0 (imparity), thus binding the scores between inequality and equality benchmarks.⁹ A simple average of each subindex score is used to calculate the overall Global Gender Gap Index score. Similar to subindex scores, this final value ranges between 1 (parity) and 0 (imparity), thus allowing for comparisons relative to ideal standards of equality in addition to relative country rankings.¹⁰ The parity and imparity benchmarks remain fixed across time, allowing the reader to track individual country progress in relation to an ideal standard of equality. Furthermore, the option of roughly interpreting the final index scores as a percentage value that reveals how a country has reduced its gender gap should help make the index more intuitively appealing to readers.¹¹

Indicators Composing the Global Gender Gap Index

Labour force participation rate, %
Proportion of a country’s working-age population (15–64) female population that engages actively in the labour market, either by working or looking for work. (i.e. ratio of the number of women participating in the labour force to total labour force). Labour force data doesn’t take into account workers employed abroad. It includes ILO estimates for missing data.
Period: 2018 or most recent year available
Source: International Labour Organization (ILO), ILOSTAT, modelled estimates.

Wage equality for similar work, 1–7 (best)
Response to the survey question, “In your country, for similar work, to what extent are wages for women equal to those of men?” (1 = not at all, significantly below those of men; 7 = fully, equal to those of men).
Period: 2018–2019 or most recent edition available
Source: World Economic Forum, Executive Opinion Survey (EOS).

Estimated earned income, int’l $ 1,000
The estimated female earned income is a proxy to command by women over a country’s economic resources. For each country, it is computed using female and male shares of the economically active population, the ratio of the female to male wages (both indicators are sourced from the ILO), gross domestic product valued at constant 2011 international dollars (IMF), and female and male shares of population (World Bank). The methodology used to compute this indicator is adapted from the methodology developed by the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report Office for computing the Gender Development Index (UNDP, 2018, page 6 ). Female and male wage measures used in the computation of the gender wage ratio correspond to the mean nominal monthly earnings of female and male employees, respectively. In the absence of wage data, a gender wage ratio of 0.75 is used in the computation of the wage bill. The ILO’s measure of earning corresponds to the mean of monthly earnings of all employees in nominal terms. The earnings of employees relate to the gross remuneration in cash and in kind paid to employees, as a rule at regular intervals, for time worked or work done together with remuneration for time not worked, such as annual vacation, other type of paid leave or holidays. Earnings exclude employers’ contributions with respect to their what employees paid to social security and pension schemes as well as the benefits received by employees under these schemes. Earnings also exclude severance and termination pay. Statistics of earnings relate to the gross remuneration of employees, i.e. the total before any deductions are made by the employer. The measurement period of this indicator corresponds to that of the wage data. In the Country Profiles, the values reported are the estimated average annual earned income per capita in constant 2011 international dollars for women and men, respectively, and the ratio of the two values.
Period: 2018 or most recent year available
Sources: International Labour Organization (ILO), ILOSTAT database (accessed 28 October 2019); International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Economic Outlook (October 2019 edition); World Bank, World Development Indicators database (accessed 28 November 2019).

Legislators, senior officials and managers, %
Ratio of women to men employed in senior roles, defined by the International Labour Organization as those who plan, direct, coordinate and evaluate the overall activities of enterprises, governments and other organizations, or of organizational units within them, and formulate and review their policies, laws, rules and regulations. It corresponds to Major Group 1 of the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-08).¹²
Period: 2018 or most recent year available
Source: International Labour Organization (ILO), ILOSTAT database (accessed 28 October 2019).

Professional and technical workers, %
Ratio of women to men employed in professional and technical roles, defined by the International Labour Organization as those who increase the existing stock of knowledge, apply scientific or artistic concepts and theories or those who perform technical and related tasks that require advanced knowledge and skill. It corresponds to the sum of Major Groups 2 and 3 of the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-08).
Period: 2018 or most recent year available
Source: International Labour Organization (ILO), ILOSTAT database (accessed 28 October 2019).

Literacy rate, %
Percentage of the adult population (over 15 years of age) of each gender with the ability to both read and write and make simple arithmetic calculations.
Period: 2018 or most recent year available
Source: UNESCO, UIS.Stat Education statistics data portal. When not available, data is sourced from United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Reports 2009, most recent year available between 1997 and 2007.

Enrolment in primary education, %
Percentage of girls and boys in the official primary school age range (net rate) who are enrolled in primary education (International Standard Classification of Education [ISCED]).¹³
Period: 2017 or most recent year available
Source: UNESCO, UIS.Stat Education statistics data portal.

Enrolment in secondary education, %
Percentage of girls and boys in the official primary school age range (net rate) who are enrolled in secondary education (ISCED 2 and 3). It excludes ISCED 4, which is post-secondary, non-tertiary education. Whenever data on this indicator is not available, the “Percentage of students in secondary education (ISCED 2 and 3) who are female” variable is used instead.
Period: 2017 or most recent year available
Source: UNESCO, UIS.Stat Education statistics data portal.

Enrolment in tertiary education, %
Total enrolment in tertiary education (gross rate), regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the most recent five-year age cohort that has left secondary school. Tertiary education consists of ISCED levels 5 to 8, and gross enrolment data should be examined within the context of a country structure regarding military service as well as propensity of students to seek education abroad.
Period: 2017 or most recent year available
Source: UNESCO, UIS.Stat Education statistics data portal.

Sex ratio at birth, %
Ratio of the number of boys born alive per 100 girls born alive. Data is converted to a female-over-male value. Biologically, the ratio is relatively constant, and female births should be about 94.4% of male births. Significant departure from this ratio indicates differences in treatment between newborn girls and newborn boys.
Period: Estimates for 2015–2020
Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2019 Revision.

Healthy life expectancy, years
Average number of years that a person of each gender can expect to live in full health, calculated by taking into account years lived in less than full health due to disease and/or injury.
Period: 2016 or most recent year available
Source: World Health Organization (WHO), Global Health Observatory database.

Women in parliament, %
Percentage of women holding parliamentary seats as a share of total parliamentary seats. In instances where a parliamentary system is bicameral, the figure used is the one for the lower house.
Period: Situation as of 1 September 2019
Source: Inter-parliamentary Union.

Women in ministerial positions, %
Percentage of women holding ministerial portfolios as a share of total ministry positions in each government. Some overlap between ministers and heads of government that also hold a ministerial portfolio may occur.
Period: Situation as of 1 January 2019
Source: Inter-parliamentary Union.

Years with female/male head of state (last 50)
The number of years in the past fifty-year period for which a woman has held a post equivalent to an elected head of state or head of government in the country. It takes into account prime ministers and/or presidents, royalties are not considered.
Period: 11 July 1970–1 July 2019
Source: World Economic Forum’s calculations.

Contextual Indicators

General indicators

GDP, US$ billions
Gross domestic product in billions of current US dollars.
Period: 2018
Source: IMF, World Economic Outlook (WEO), October 2019 edition.

GDP per capita, constant ‘11, intl. $1,000
Gross domestic product per person at 2011 constant purchasing power parity (PPP).
Period: 2018
Source: IMF, World Economic Outlook (WEO), October 2019 edition.

Total population, million people
Estimate of the number of people of all ages living in a country, regardless of residency status or citizenship (except for refugees not permanently settled in the country of asylum who are generally considered part of the population of their country of origin).
Period: 2018
Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2019 Revision.

Population growth rate, %
Year-on-year percentage change in total population, calculated based on current and previous year. It reflects the number of births and deaths during a period and the number of people migrating to and from a country.
Period: 2018
Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2019 Revision.

Population sex ratio (female/male), female/male ratio
Ratio of the number of females (thousands) to males (thousands) in the population of a society.
Period: 2018
Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2019 Revision.

Work participation and leadership

Labour force, million people
Total number of people (by gender) participation in the labour force. The ratio is the percentage of women participating in the labour force to the total labour force.
Period: 2018 or most recent year available
Source: World Economic Forum’s calculations based on International Labour Organization (ILO), ILOSTAT database (accessed 20 November 2019).

Unemployed adults, % of labour force (15–64)
Share of the labour force aged 15–64 of each gender that is without work but available for and seeking employment. Definitions of labour force and unemployment differ by country.
Period: 2018 or most recent year available
Source: International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT database (bulk download, accessed 17 November 2019).

Workers employed part-time, % of employed people
The incidence of part-time employment, also known as the part-time employment rate, represents the percentage of employment that is part time. Part-time employment in this table is based on a common definition of less than 35 actual weekly hours worked. It is derived from both the indicator on employment by sex and actual weekly hours worked.
Period: 2018 or most recent year available
Source: World Economic Forum’s calculations based on International Labour Organization (ILO), ILOSTAT database (accessed 20 November 2019).

Gender pay gap (OECD only), %
The gender wage gap is defined as the difference between male and female median wages divided by male median wages. Wages are computed for full-time equivalent dependent employees and are expressed in US$ using current exchange rates and US$ Purchasing Power Parity rates (PPPs) for private consumption expenditures as conversion factors. For more details about the computation of wage estimates, refer to http://www.oecd.org/employment/emp/average_wages.pdf.
Period: 2018
Source: OECD, Employment database.

Proportion of unpaid work per day, female/male ratio
Share of average time spent on unpaid domestic work by women relative to that of men. Unpaid domestic work includes care and volunteer work and is expressed as a share of a 24-hour period.
Period: 2017
Source: OECD, Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB).

Advancement of women to leadership roles, 1–7 (best)
Response to the survey question: “In your country, to what extent do companies provide women with the same opportunities as men to rise to positions of leadership?” 1=not at all; 7=to a great extent.
Period: 2018–2019
Source: World Economic Forum, Executive Opinion Survey (EOS).

Gender parity in tech roles, 1–7 (best)
Response to the survey question: “In your country, to what extent are women entering information technology roles (across all sectors)?” 1=not at all; 7=to a great extent, the rate is equal to that of men.
Period: 2018–2019
Source: World Economic Forum, Executive Opinion Survey (EOS).

Boards of listed companies,% board members
Share of board members of listed companies that are women. Data differs slightly by country. For EU countries, Iceland, Norway and Turkey, data refers to the proportion of seats held by women on boards for the largest 50 members of the primary blue-chip index in the country concerned (including only those companies that are registered in the given country). “Board members” refers to all members of the highest decision-making body in the given company, such as the board of directors for a company in a unitary system or the supervisory board in the case of a company in a two-tier system. For countries with data based on MSCI 2017
(https://www.msci.com/documents/10199/239004/MSCI_Women+on+Boards+Progress+Report+2017.pdf), data refers to the proportion of seats held by women on boards for companies covered by the MSCI ACWI index—an index of around 2,400 large- and mid-cap firms from developed and emerging countries.
Period: 2017
Source: OECD, Employment database.

Firms with female majority ownership, % firms
Percentage of firms answering, “More than 50%” to the question “What percentage of the firm is owned by females?”. For African countries surveyed in 2009–2011, this indicator is the percentage of companies answering, “Majority are women” or “All women” to the question “Are the owners of the firm?”. For more details refer to: https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/content/dam/enterprisesurveys/documents/methodology/Indicator-Descriptions.pdf.
Period: 2013
Source: World Bank Enterprise Survey.

Firms with female top managers, % firms
Percentage of firms answering “yes” to the question “Is the Top Manager female?”. For more details refer to:
https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/content/dam/enterprisesurveys/documents/methodology/Indicator-Descriptions.pdf.
Period: 2013
Source: World Bank Enterprise Survey.

Access to finance

Right to hold a bank account and get credit, 0–1 (worst)
Index measuring whether women and men have the same legal rights to open a bank account and obtain credit in a formal financial institution. For each case, the following scores are assigned: 0 = Women and men have the same rights to open a bank account and obtain credit at a formal financial institution, without legal exceptions regarding some groups of women. Customary, religious and traditional laws or practices do not discriminate against women’s above legal rights; 0.25 = Women and men have the same rights to open a bank account and obtain credit at a formal financial institution to women and men, without legal exceptions regarding some groups of women. However, some customary, religious or traditional practices or laws discriminate against women’s legal rights; 0.5 = Women and men have the same rights to open a bank account and obtain credit at a formal financial institution to women and men. However, this does not apply to all groups of women; 0.75 = Women and men have the same rights to open a bank account at a formal financial institution. However, women do not have the same rights as men to obtain credit; 1 = Women do not have the same rights as men to open a bank account at a formal financial institution.
Period: 2017
Source: OECD, Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB).

Inheritance rights for daughters, 0–1 (worst)
Index measuring whether women and men have the same legal rights to inheritance of land and non-land assets. For each case, the following scores are assigned: 0 = Widows and daughters enjoy the same rights as widowers and sons to inherit land and non-land assets. This applies to all groups of women. Customary, religious and traditional laws or practices do not discriminate against women’s inheritance rights; 0.25 = Widows and daughters enjoy the same rights as widowers and sons to inherit land and non-land assets. This applies to all groups of women. However, there are some customary, religious or traditional laws that discriminate against women’s inheritance rights; 0.5 = Widows and daughters enjoy the same rights as widowers and sons to inherit land and non-land assets. However, this does not apply to all groups of women; 0.75 = Widows or daughters do not enjoy the same rights as widowers and sons to inherit land and/or non-land assets; 1 = Widows and daughters do not enjoy the same rights as widowers and sons to inherit land and/or non-land assets.
Period: 2017
Source: OECD, Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB).

Women’s access to land use, control & ownership, 0–1 (worst)
Index measuring whether women and men have the same legal rights and secure access to land assets. For each case, the following scores are assigned: 0 = Women and men have the same legal rights and secure access to land assets, without legal exceptions regarding some groups of women. Customary, religious and traditional laws or practices do not discriminate against women’s legal rights. 0.25 = Women and men have the same legal rights and secure access to land assets, without legal exceptions regarding some groups of women. However, some customary, religious or traditional practices or laws discriminate against women’s legal right; 0.5 = Women and men have the same legal rights and secure access to land assets. However, this does not apply to all groups of women; 0.75 = Women and men have the same legal rights to own land assets, but not to use, make decisions and/or use land assets as collateral; 1 = Women do not have the same legal rights as men to own land assets.
Period: 2017
Source: OECD, Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB).

Women’s access to non-land assets use, control & ownership, 0–1 (worst)
Index measuring whether women and men have the same legal rights and secure access to non-land assets. For each case, the following scores are assigned: 0 = Women and men have the same legal rights and secure access to non-land assets, without legal exceptions regarding some groups of women. Customary, religious and traditional laws or practices do not discriminate against women’s legal rights; 0.25 = Women and men have the same legal rights and secure access to non-land assets, without legal exceptions regarding some groups of women. However, some customary, religious or traditional practices or laws discriminate against women’s legal right; 0.5 = Women and men have the same legal rights and secure access to non-land assets. However, this does not apply to all groups of women; 0.75 = Women and men have the same legal rights to own non-land assets, but not to use, make decisions and/or use non-land assets as collateral; 1 = Women do not have the same legal rights as men to own non-land assets.
Period: 2017
Source: OECD, Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB).

Civil and political freedom

Year women received right to vote
Year women received right to vote. Refers to the year in which the right to vote or stand for election on a universal and equal basis was recognized. Where two years are shown, the first refers to the first partial recognition of the right to vote or stand for election.
Period: Situation as of 2019
Source: World Economic Forum’s calculations.

Number of female heads of state to date
The number of women who have ever taken office over the past fifty-year period as head of state or head of government in a country.
Period: 2019
Source: World Economic Forum’s calculations.

Election list quotas for women, national, yes/no
Reports if a country has in place electoral laws specifying quotas for female candidates in national elections to the lower parliamentary house.
Period: 2019
Source: Quotaproject.org.

Party membership quotas, voluntary, yes/no
Reports if a country has in place voluntary quotas specifying the number of women for political party membership.
Period: 2019
Source: Quotaproject.org.

Seats held in upper house, % total seats
Percentage of women holding seats in the higher house of representatives as a share of total seats. Applies only to bicameral parliamentary systems.
Period: 2019
Source: Inter-parliamentary Union.

Right to equal justice, 0–1 (worst)
Index measuring whether women and men have the same rights to provide testimony in court, hold public or political office in the judiciary and sue. For each case, the following scores are assigned: 0 = A woman’s testimony holds the same evidentiary weight as a man’s in all types of court cases and women have the same rights as men to sue and to hold public or political office in the judiciary. Customary, religious and traditional laws or practices do not discriminate against women’s legal right to sue, to provide testimony in court or to be a judge, advocate or other court officer; 0.25 = A woman’s testimony holds the same evidentiary weight as a man’s in all types of court cases and women have the same rights as men to sue and to hold public or political office in the judiciary. Women’s testimonies carry the same evidentiary weight in customary/religious courts/tribunals. However, some customary, traditional or religious practices or laws discriminate against women’s legal right to sue, to provide testimony in court or to be a judge, advocate or other court officer; 0.5 = A woman’s testimony holds the same evidentiary weight as a man’s in all types of court cases and women have the same rights as men to sue. However, women do not have the same right as men to hold public or political office in the judiciary; 0.75 = Women and men have the same rights to sue. However, a woman’s testimony does not hold the same evidentiary weight as a man’s in all types of court cases; 1 = Women and men do not have the same rights to sue.
Period: 2017
Source: OECD, Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB).

Right to travel outside the country, 0–1 (worst)
Index measuring whether women and men have the same rights to apply for national identity cards (if applicable) and passports and travel outside the country. For each case, the following scores are assigned: 0 = Women and men have the same rights to apply for national identity cards (if applicable) and passports and to travel outside the country, without legal exceptions regarding some groups of women. Customary, religious and traditional laws or practices do not discriminate against these rights; 0.25 = Women and men have the same rights to apply for national identity cards (if applicable) and passports and to travel outside the country, without legal exceptions regarding some groups of women. However, some customary, traditional or religious practices or laws discriminate against these rights; 0.5 = Women and men have the same rights to apply for national identity cards (if applicable) and passports and to travel outside the country. However, this does not apply to all groups of women; 0.75 = Women do not have the same rights as men to apply for national identity cards (if applicable) or passports or to travel outside the country; 1 = Women do not have the same rights as men to apply for national identity cards (if applicable) or passports and to travel outside the country.
Period: 2017
Source: OECD, Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB).

Family and care

Mean age of women at birth of first child
The mean age of mothers at first child’s birth is defined as the average completed year of age of women when their first child is born.
Period: 2015–2020 estimates
Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Population Prospects 2019 – Special Aggregates, Online Edition. Rev. 1.

Average number of children per woman
Measures the average number of children a hypothetical cohort of women would have at the end of their reproductive period if they were subject during their whole lives to the fertility rates of a given period and if they were not subject to mortality.
Period: 2015–2020 estimates
Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Population Prospects 2019 – Special Aggregates, Online Edition. Rev. 1.

Women’s unmet demand for family planning, % women 15–49
Percentage of currently married or in-union women of reproductive age (15–49) who want to stop or delay childbearing but are not using any method of contraception.
Period: 2017
Source: OECD, Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB).

Right to divorce, 0–1 (worst)
Index measuring whether women and men have the same legal rights to initiate divorce and have the same requirements for divorce or annulment. For each case, the following scores are assigned: 0 = Women have the same rights to initiate divorce and the same requirements to finalize divorce or annulment as men, without negative repercussions from their parental authority. This applies to all groups of women. Customary, religious and traditional laws or practices do not discriminate against women’s rights regarding divorce or parental authority after divorce; 0.25 = Women have the same rights to initiate divorce and the same requirements to finalize divorce or annulment as men, without negative repercussions from their parental authority. This applies to all groups of women. However, there are some customary, religious or traditional laws or practices that discriminate against women’s rights regarding divorce and/or parental authority after divorce; 0.5 = Women have the same rights to initiate divorce and the same requirements to finalize divorce or annulment as men, without negative repercussions from their parental authority. However, this does not apply to all groups of women; 0.75 = Women do not have the same rights over divorce as men: either their rights to initiate divorce and/or the requirements to finalize divorce or annulment are unequal, or their freedom from parental authority after divorce is restricted; 1 = Women do not have the same rights over divorce as men: their rights to initiate divorce and/or the requirements to finalize divorce or annulment are unequal, and their freedom from parental authority after divorce is restricted.
Period: 2017
Source: OECD Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB).

Child marriage, % women 15-19
Percentage of girls aged 15–19 years who are or have ever been married, divorced, widowed or in an informal union.
Period: 2017
Source: OECD, Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB).

Length of maternity/paternity leave (days), weeks
Number of weeks of job-protected leave available for mothers/fathers just before and after childbirth. For countries where there is no separate legislation for maternity leave, the weeks of parental leave reserved for the exclusive use of mothers around childbirth are reported. Paid father-specific leave refers to the number of paid weeks reserved for the exclusive use of fathers, including entitlements to paid paternity leave, ‘father quotas’ or periods of paid parental leave that can be used only by the father and cannot be transferred to the mother, and any weeks of paid sharable leave that must be taken by the father in order for the family to qualify for ‘bonus’ weeks of parental leave.
Period: 2018
Source: OECD, Employment database.

Wages paid during maternity/paternity leave, % annual gross wage
Average share of gross annual wage paid. It refers to the proportion of previous earnings replaced by the benefit over the length of the paid leave entitlement for a person earning 100% of average national full-time earnings. For maternity leaves, it refers to paid parental leave and subsequent periods of paid home care leave to care for young children. For paternity leave rates, information refers to entitlements to paternity leave, ‘father quotas’ or periods of parental leave that can be used only by the father and cannot be transferred to the mother, and any weeks of sharable leave that must be taken by the father in order for the family to qualify for ‘bonus’ weeks of parental leave.
Period: 2018
Source: OECD, Family database.
Education and skills

STEMS, attainment %
Percentage of male/female tertiary education graduates from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) programmes.
Period: 2017
Source: UNESCO, Education indicators.

Agri., Forestry, Fisheries & Veterinary, attainment %
Percentage of male/female tertiary education graduates from Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Veterinary programmes.
Period: 2017
Source: UNESCO, Education indicators.

Arts & Humanities, attainment %
Percentage of male/female tertiary education graduates from Arts and Humanities programmes.
Period: 2017
Source: UNESCO, Education indicators.

Business, Admin. & Law, attainment %
Percentage of male/female tertiary education graduates from Business, Administration and Law programmes.
Period: 2017
Source: UNESCO, Education indicators.

Education, attainment %
Percentage of male/female tertiary education graduates from Education programmes.
Period: 2017
Source: UNESCO, Education indicators.

Engineering, Manuf. & Construction, attainment %
Percentage of male/female tertiary education graduates from Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction programmes.
Period: 2017
Source: UNESCO, Education indicators.

Health & Welfare, attainment %
Percentage of male/female tertiary education graduates from Health and Welfare programmes.
Period: 2017
Source: UNESCO, Education indicators.

Information & Comm. Technologies, attainment %
Percentage of male/female graduates from tertiary education graduating from Information and Communication Technologies programmes
Period: 2017
Source: UNESCO, Education indicators.

Natural Sci., Mathematics & Statistics, attainment %
Percentage of male/female tertiary education graduates from Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics programmes.
Period: 2017
Source: UNESCO, Education indicators.

Services, attainment %
Percentage of male/female tertiary education graduates from Services programmes.
Period: 2017
Source: UNESCO, Education indicators.

Social Sci., Journalism & Information, attainment %
Percentage of male/female tertiary education graduates from Social Sciences, Journalism and Information programmes.
Period: 2017
Source: UNESCO, Education indicators.

Vocational training, attainment %
Percentage of girls/boys aged 15–24 who are enrolled in vocational education relative to the total 15–24 year-old population.
Period: 2017
Source: UNESCO, Education indicators.

PhD graduates, attainment %
Percentage of 25+ year-old women/men who have attained a doctoral degree or equivalent (ISCED 8) relative to the total population of over 25-year-olds.
Period: 2017
Source: UNESCO, Education indicators.

Health

Maternal mortality, deaths per 100,000 live births
Number of female deaths in a specific year from any cause related to or aggravated by pregnancy or its management (excluding accidental or incidental causes) during pregnancy and childbirth, or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, per 100,000 live births.
Period: 2017 estimates
Source: World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory (GHO) database, “Maternal deaths” indicator (accessed 18 November 2019).

Prevalence of gender violence in lifetime, % women
Percentage of ever-partnered women who ever suffered intimate partner physical and/or sexual violence.
Period: 2017
Source: OECD, Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB).

Law permits abortion to preserve a woman’s health, 0–1 (worst)
Index measuring whether the legal framework protects women’s reproductive health and rights. For each case, the following scores are assigned: 0 = The legal framework protects women’s reproductive health and rights in case of unwanted pregnancy, without any justifications; 0.25 = The legal framework protects women’s reproductive health and rights in case of unwanted pregnancy, but requires justifications; 0.5 = The legal framework only protects women’s reproductive health and rights in case of unwanted pregnancy with some justifications; 0.75 = The legal framework only protects women’s reproductive health and rights in case of unwanted pregnancy with strict justifications; 1 = The legal framework does not protect women’s reproductive health and rights in case of unwanted pregnancy.
Period: 2017
Source: OECD, Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB).

Births attended by skilled personnel, % live births
Share of live births attended by skilled health personnel to total live births in a given year.
Period: 2017–2018 or most recent period available
Source: World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory database, “Births attended by skilled health personnel” indicator (accessed 18 November 2019).

Antenatal care, at least four visits, % women 15–49
Percentage of women aged 15–49 with a live birth in a given time period that received antenatal care provided by skilled health personnel (doctors, nurses or midwives) at least four times during pregnancy.
Period: 2017 or most recent year available
Source: WHO, Global Health Observatory (GHO) database, “Maternal health” indicator.

References

Hausmann, R., “Learning Without Theory”, Project Syndicate, 30 March 2016,
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/learning-without-theory-by-ricardo-hausmann-2016-03?barrier=accesspaylog.

Klasen, S. and C. Wink, “Missing Women: Revisiting the Debate”, Feminist Economics, vol. 9, no. 2–3, 2003, pp. 263–299.

Lopez-Claros, A. and S. Zahidi, Women’s Empowerment: Measuring the Global Gender Gap, World Economic Forum, 2005.

UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), Human Development Indices and Indicators: 2018 Statistical Update, 2018,
http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdr2018_technical_notes.pdf.

World Economic Forum, The Global Competitiveness Report 2019, 2019.