“The paths to equal: Twin indices on women’s empowerment and gender equality” was launched by UN Women and UNDP at the Women Deliver Conference held in Kigali, Rwanda.
Key points
- The report sees UN Women and UNDP join forces to propose the Women’s Empowerment Index (WEI) and the Global Gender Parity Index (GGPI) as the twin indices for measuring gender parity and women’s empowerment.
- Analysis of 114 countries has found that women’s power and freedom to make choices and seize opportunities remain largely restricted. Low women’s empowerment and large gender gaps are commonplace.
- The WEI measures women’s power and freedoms to make choices and seize life opportunities across five dimensions: health, education, inclusion, decision-making, and violence against women.
- Similarly, the GGPI evaluates the status of women relative to men in core dimensions of human development, including health, education, inclusion, and decision-making.
- The Report also highlights that less than 1 percent of women and girls live in countries with both high levels of women’s empowerment and high gender parity, while more than 90 percent of the world’s female population —3.1 billion women and girls — live in countries characterized by a large women’s empowerment deficit and a large gender gap.
- In India, women’s empowerment and gender parity were both found to be ‘low’, although it was assessed to be in the ‘medium’ catergory in terms of human development.
