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 introduces a minor but required update to an indicator under the Educational Attainment subindex. The change is explored in detail in Section B.

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, advanced economies, 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.

Table B.1. Structure of the Global Gender Gap Index

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Subindex Indicator Source

Economic Participation and Opportunity Labour- force participation rate International Labour Organization (ILO), ILOSTAT database, modelled estimates Economic Participation and Opportunity Wage equality for similar work World Economic Forum, Executive Opinion Survey (EOS) Economic Participation and Opportunity Estimated earned income International Labour Organization (ILO), ILOSTAT database (accessed March 2022); International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Economic Outlook (October 2020); World Bank, World Development Indicators database (accessed March 2022) Economic Participation and Opportunity Legislators, senior officials and managers International Labour Organization (ILO), ILOSTAT database (accessed March 2022) Economic Participation and Opportunity Professional and technical workers International Labour Organization (ILO), ILOSTAT database (accessed March 2022) Educational Attainment Literacy rate UNESCO, UIS.Stat Education statistics data portal. When not available, data is sourced from United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Reports, most recent year available between 2012 and 2022. Educational Attainment Enrolment in primary education UNESCO, UIS.Stat Education statistics data portal Educational Attainment Enrolment in secondary education UNESCO, UIS.Stat Education statistics data portal Educational Attainment Enrolment in tertiary education UNESCO, UIS.Stat Education statistics data portal Health and Survival Sex ratio at birth World Bank, World Development Indicators database Health and Survival Healthy life expectancy World Health Organization (WHO), Global Health Observatory database Political Empowerment Women in parliament Inter-parliamentary Union Political Empowerment Women in ministerial positions Inter-parliamentary Union Political Empowerment Years with female/male head of state (last 50) World Economic Forum's calculations

Source: World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Index 2022.

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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 the enrolment 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 women's literacy rate to men's literacy rate.

Health and Survival

This subindex provides an overview of the differences between women's and men's health using two indicators. The first is the sex ratio at birth, which aims specifically to capture the phenomenon of "missing women", prevalent in 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 accounting for the years lost to violence, disease, malnutrition and other 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.

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 B1 require specific standardization or modification 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 parity 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 1.06 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.⁶

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 Economy 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 gets a larger weight within the subindex than an indicator with a larger variability. Therefore, a country with a large gender gap in the first indicator will be more heavily penalized. Another example is 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

Table B.2. Calculation of weights within each subindex, 2022

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Economic Participation and Opportunity

Ratio Standard deviation Standard deviation per 1% point change Weight Labour-force participation rate, % (females-to-males ratio) 0.160 0.063 0.199 Wage equality for similar work (survey), 1-7 scale (females-to-males ratio) 0.103 0.097 0.310 Estimated earned income, PPP, int.\$ (females-to-males ratio) 0.144 0.069 0.221 Legislators, senior officials and managers, % (females-to-males ratio) 0.214 0.047 0.149 Professional and technical workers, % (females-to-males ratio) 0.262 0.038 0.121 Educational Attainment Ratio Standard deviation Standard deviation per 1% point change Weight Literacy rate, % (females-to-males ratio) 0.145 0.069 0.191 Enrolment in primary education, % (females-to-males ratio) 0.060 0.167 0.459 Enrolment in secondary education, % (females-to-males ratio) 0.120 0.083 0.230 Enrolment in tertiary education, % (females-to-males ratio) 0.228 0.044 0.121 Health and Survival Ratio Standard deviation Standard deviation per 1% point change Weight Sex ratio at birth, % (females-to-males ratio) 0.010 0.998 0.693 Healthy life expectancy, years (females-to-males ratio) 0.023 0.441 0.307 Political Empowerment Ratio Standard deviation Standard deviation per 1% point change Weight Women in parliament, % (females-to-males ratio) 0.166 0.06 0.31 Women in ministerial positions, % (females-to-males ratio) 0.208 0.048 0.247 Years with female head of state (last 50), Share of tenure years (females-to-males ratio) 0.116 0.086 0.443

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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).⁹ A simple average of each subindex score is used to calculate the overall Global Gender Gap Index score - a final value that, like subindex scores, ranges between 1 (parity) and 0 (imparity). The parity and imparity benchmarks have remained fixed through report editions to allow for the comparison and relative ranking of countries¹⁰ in a given year, and across time. This allows readers to track individual country progress. 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

The last fifteen editions (2006-2021) of the Global Gender Gap Report have used the 'Net Enrolment Ratio in secondary education' (NER) indicator in the calculation of the Educational Attainment subindex score of the index. The ratio of female-to-male NER provided an indicator for economies' gender gaps in access to secondary education for the population in the official age group for secondary education.¹²

In 2015, resulting from a UNESCO-UIS review of global reporting indicators, the Education 2030 Framework for Action was adopted by 184 countries to monitor inclusive and equitable education.¹³ The framework features targets for sex-disaggregated metrics and gender parity indices (GPI) on enrolment, transition and completion rates, as well as learning outcomes. This process led to subsequent changes to core SDG 4 indicators,¹⁴ including the discontinuation of NER.

The Global Gender Gap Index has responded to the change in UNESCO indicators by adopting Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER)¹⁵ in secondary education after a thorough examination of another alternative age-bound indicator: Total Net Enrolment Rate (NERT),which is disaggregated by lower and upper secondary education.

Previously, the report assessed substitutions based on conceptual proximity, empirical proximity and indicator quality and availability. Due to the reduced coverage of official and recent data points under NERT, this year's edition had no option but to adopt GER to support data validity and comparability across its time series. However. the report stresses the absolute necessity of continued and consecutive participation in schooling as a condition determinant to the attainment of age-bound gender parity outcomes.

The results showed that the gender gap in secondary enrolment widens by 0.8% when based on gross enrolment rate instead of net enrolment rate. Using gross enrolment improves the scores of seven economies: Togo, Mali, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Niger and Moldova, in order of magnitude. Conversely, the substitution simulated in this way decreases the scores of 37 economies, namely Australia, Morocco, Germany, Lao PDR, Norway, Greece, Austria, Lithuania, Poland, United Arab Emirates, Russian Federation, Sierra Leone, Bolivia, Turkey, Portugal, Malawi, Peru, Cyprus, Oman, Ghana, Belarus, Egypt, Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Guatemala, Singapore, Iceland, Latvia, Italy, El Salvador, United States of America, Côte d\'Ivoire, Republic of Korea, Malta and Bulgaria.

Labour-force participation rate, %

Proportion of a country's working-age (15+) 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 does not take into account workers employed abroad. It includes ILO estimates for missing data.

Period: 2021.

Source: International Labour Organization (ILO), ILOSTAT.

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: Moving average 2020-2021 or most recent year available.

Source: World Economic Forum, Executive Opinion Survey (EOS).

Estimated earned income, int'l \$1,000s

The estimated female earned income is a proxy for how much command women have 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 2017 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, 2020, pages 6-7). 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. 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 in respect of their employees paid to social security and pension schemes and also 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 2017 international dollars for women and men, respectively, and the ratio of the two values.

Period: 2020 or most recent year available.

Source: International Labour Organization (ILO), ILOSTAT; International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Economic Outlook; World Bank, World Development Indicators.

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).¹⁶

Period: 2021 or most recent year available.

Source: International Labour Organization (ILO), ILOSTAT.

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: 2021 or most recent year available.

Source: International Labour Organization (ILO), ILOSTAT.

Literacy rate, %

Percentage of the adult population (women and men over 15 years of age) with the ability to both read and write and make simple arithmetic calculations. For advanced economies for which data was unavailable in the last 10 years, the authors assumed based on older data that the gender gap on literacy rate is closed.

Period: 2018 or most recent year available.

Source: UNESCO, UIS.Stat education statistics data portal; when not available, data is sourced from the United Nations Development Programme Human Development Reports, most recent data available.

Enrolment in primary education, %

Percentage of girls and boys in the official primary school age range (Net Enrolment rate in Primary education) who are enrolled in primary education (International Standard Classification of Education [ISCED] 1).¹⁷

Period: 2019 or most recent year available.

Source: UNESCO, UIS.Stat education statistics data portal.

Enrolment in secondary education, %

Based on Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER). Measures the percentage of girls and boys enrolled in secondary education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the official school-age population corresponding to secondary education.

A high GER generally indicates a high degree of participation, whether the pupils belong to the official age group or not. A GER value approaching or exceeding 100% indicates that a country is, in principle, able to accommodate all of its school-age population, but it does not indicate the proportion already enrolled. The achievement of a GER of 100% is therefore a necessary but not sufficient condition for enrolling all eligible children in school.

Period: 2019 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: 2019 or most recent year available.

Source: UNESCO, UIS. Stat education statistics data portal.

Sex ratio at birth, %

Sex ratio at birth refers to male births per female births. The data are five-year averages.

Period: 2020 or most recent year available.

Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators.

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: 2019 or most recent year available.

Source: World Health Organization (WHO), Global Health Observatory Data Repository.

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: Data as of 1 March 2022.

Source: Inter-parliamentary Union, 2021.

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: Data as of 1 January 2021.

Source: Inter-parliamentary Union, 2021.

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, and royalties are not considered.

Period: Period comprising 1 March 1972 - 1 March 2022.

Source: World Economic Forum's calculations.

General indicators

GDP, current US\$

Gross domestic product (GDP) at purchaser\'s prices is the sum of gross value added by all resident producers in the economy plus any product taxes and minus any subsidies not included in the value of the products.

Period: 2021.

Source: World Bank.

GDP per capita, PPP (constant 2017 international \$)

This indicator provides per capita values for gross domestic product (GDP) expressed in current international dollars converted by purchasing power parity (PPP) conversion factor.

Period: 2021.

Source: World Bank.

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: 2019.

Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Population Prospects.

Population sex ratio (female/male), %

Ratio of the number of females (thousands) to males (thousands) in the population of a society. World Bank staff estimates based on age/sex distributions of United Nations Population Division\'s World Population Prospects.

Period: 2020.

Source: World Bank.

Population growth rate, %

Year-on-year percentage change in total population, calculated based on current and previous year. Population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship.

Period: 2019 or most recent year.

Source: World Bank.

Work participation & leadership

Gender wage gap

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: 2020 or most recent year.

Source: OECD, Employment database.

Share of women\'s membership in boards, %

Share of board members of listed companies that are women. "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.

Period: 2021 or most recent year.

Source: OECD, Employment database.

Firms with female majority ownership, %

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: 2021-2022.

Source: World Bank Enterprise Survey.

Firms with female top managers, %

Firms with female top manager refers to the percentage of firms in the private sector who have females as top managers. "Top manager" refers to the highest-ranking manager or CEO of the establishment. This person may be the owner if he/she works as the manager of the firm. The results are based on surveys of more than 100,000 private firms.

Period: 2021-2022.

Source: World Bank Enterprise Survey.

Share of workers in informal sector, %

This is the ratio of employment of women/men in the informal sector to the total employment (irrespective of the informality/formality) of women/ men. Employment in the informal sector refers all persons who, during a given reference period, were employed in at least one informal sector enterprise, irrespective of their status in employment and whether it was their main or a secondary job. An informal sector enterprise is (1) an unincorporated enterprise, (2) a market enterprise (i.e. it sells at least some of the goods or services it produces), and (3) meets at least one of the following criteria: (i) the enterprise is not registered, (ii) the employees of the enterprise are not registered, or (iii) the number of persons engaged on a continuous basis is below a threshold determined by the country.

Period: 2022.

Source: International Labour Organization (ILO), ILOSTAT.

Advancement of women to leadership roles

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: 2021.

Source: World Economic Forum, Executive Opinion Survey (EOS).

Labour force, 1,000 people (%)

Total number of people (M/F) participating in the labour force. The ratio is the percentage of women participating in the labour force with respect to the total labour force.

Period: 2022.

Source: International Labour Organization (ILO), ILOSTAT.

Unemployed adults, % of labour force

Share of the labour force aged 15-64 (M/F) that is without work but available for and seeking employment. Definitions of labour force and unemployment differ by country.

Period: 2022.

Source: International Labour Organization (ILO), ILOSTAT.

Share of workers employed part-time, %

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: 2022.

Source: International Labour Organization (ILO), ILOSTAT.

Proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work, by sex, age and location, %

Monitors the average time men and women spend on unpaid domestic and care work per day. Data is expressed as a proportion of time in a day. Domestic and care work includes food preparation, dishwashing, cleaning and upkeep of a dwelling, laundry, ironing, gardening, caring for pets, shopping, installation, servicing and repair of personal and household goods, childcare, and care of the sick, elderly or disabled household members, among others.

Period: 2019 of latest year available.

Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Access to finance

Access to financial services

Measures whether women and men have the same legal rights to open a bank account and obtain credit at 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: 2019.

Source: OECD, Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB).

Inheritance for widows & daughters

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: 2019.

Source: OECD, Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB).

Access to land assets

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: 2019.

Source: OECD, Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB).

Access to non-land assets

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 land assets as collateral; 1 = Women do not have the same legal rights as men to own non-land assets.

Period: 2019.

Source: OECD, Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB).

Civil and political freedom

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: 2019

Source: Harvard Dataverse.

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: Data as of 1 March 2022.

Source: World Economic Forum's calculations.

Access to justice

Measures whether women and men have the same rights to provide testimony in court, hold public or political office in the judiciary and sue: 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 testimony 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: 2019.

Source: OECD, Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB).

Freedom of movement

Measures whether women and men have the same rights to apply for national identity cards (if applicable) and passports and travel outside the country: 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: 2019.

Source: OECD, Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB).

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: Data as of 1 March 2022.

Source: IDEA, Gender Quotas Database.

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: Data as of 1 March 2022.

Source: IDEA, Gender Quotas Database.

Seats held in upper house, % of 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: 2022.

Source: Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU).

Family and care

Public spending on family benefits, % of GDP

Public spending on family benefits includes financial support that is exclusively for families and children. Spending recorded in other social policy areas such as health and housing may also assist families, but not exclusively, and is not included in the indicator.

Period: 2018 or latest year available.

Source: OECD, Family database.

Unmet family planning

Unmet need for family planning is defined as the percentage of women who do not want to become pregnant but are not using contraception.

Period: 2019 or latest year available.

Source: USAID Demographic and Health Surveys

Program.

Early marriage, %

Percentage of girls aged 15-19 years who are or have ever been married, divorced, widowed or in an informal union.

Period: 2019.

Source: OECD, Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB).

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.

Right to divorce

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: 2019.

Source: OECD, Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB).

Length of parental leave, by sex

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: 2021.

Source: OECD, Family database.

Education and skills

Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries & Veterinary graduates, %

Percentage of male/female tertiary education graduates from Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries & Veterinary programmes.

Period: 2019 or most recent year.

Source: UNESCO, Education database.

Arts & Humanities graduates, %

Percentage of male/female tertiary education graduates from Arts & Humanities programmes.

Period: 2019 or most recent year.

Source: UNESCO, Education database.

Graduates from Business, Administration and Law graduates, %

Percentage of male/female tertiary education graduates from Business, Administration and Law programmes.

Period: 2019 or most recent year.

Source: UNESCO, Education database.

Education graduates, %

Percentage of male/female tertiary education graduates from Education programmes.

Period: 2019 or most recent year.

Source: UNESCO, Education database.

Engineering, Manufacturing & Construction graduates, %

Percentage of male/female tertiary education graduates from Engineering, Manufacturing & Construction programmes.

Period: 2019 or most recent year.

Source: UNESCO, Education database.

Health & Welfare graduates, %

Percentage of male/female tertiary education graduates from Health and Welfare programmes.

Period: 2019 or most recent year.

Source: UNESCO, Education database.

Information and Communication Technologies graduates, %

Percentage of male/female tertiary education graduates from Information and Communication Technologies programmes.

Period: 2019 or most recent year.

Source: UNESCO, Education database.

Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics graduates, %

Percentage of male/female tertiary education graduates from Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics programmes.

Period: 2019 or most recent year.

Source: UNESCO, Education database.

Social Science & Journalism graduates, %

Percentage of male/female tertiary education graduates from Social Science & Journalism programmes.

Period: 2019 or most recent year.

Source: UNESCO, Education database.

STEM graduates, %

Percentage of male/female tertiary education graduates from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) programmes.

Period: 2019 or most recent year.

Source: UNESCO, Education indicators.

Vocational training, % attainment

Percentage of 15-24 year-old girls/ boys enrolled in vocational education to the total 15-24 year-old population.

Period: 2019 or most recent year.

Source: UNESCO, Education database.

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: 2019 or most recent year.

Source: UNESCO, Education database.

Tertiary education graduates, %

Percentage of male/female tertiary education graduates.

Period: 2019 or most recent year.

Source: UNESCO, Education database.

Health

Prevalence of gender violence in lifetime, % women

Percentage of ever-partnered women who ever suffered intimate partner physical and/or sexual violence.

Period: 2019.

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: 2019 or most recent year.

Source: UNICEF.

Maternal mortality ratio

Number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.

Period: 2017.

Source: UNICEF.

Total fertility rate, births 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: 2019.

Source: World Bank.

Reproductive autonomy

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: 2019.

Source: OECD, Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB).

1. See Hausmann, 2016, for further detail

2. Following a methodology originally developed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Global Gender Gap Index estimates the average income earned by women, relative to income earned by men, in a calculation that takes into account a country’s GDP per capita (US$), the share of women and men in the labour force, and their mean nominal wages. To account for globally rising income levels, beginning with 2018’s edition the report no longer caps the maximum income per capita value considered in the calculation. This follows UNDP’s own adjustment of the methodology and the fact that the $40,000 cap formerly used in previous editions of the Global Gender Gap Index had increasingly lost some of its ability to discern the level of gender-based income disparities among high-income nations such as the Nordics, the United States and the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council. For a full overview of the 2016 methodology change, please refer to that report edition’s Appendix D.

3. For more information about the Executive Opinion Survey, see World Economic Forum, 2020, Appendix B.

4. The report utilizes the United Nations Population Division’s World Population Prospects as a reference source for the sex ratio at birth indicator. Previous editions of the report had utilized data from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook as an alternative data source.

5. This ratio is based on what is considered to be a “normal” sex ratio at birth: 1.06 males for every female born. See Klasen and Wink, 2003.

6. This ratio is based on the standards used in the UNDP’s Gender-Related Development Index, which uses 87.5 years as the maximum age for women and 82.5 years as the maximum age for men.

7. A first attempt to calculate the gender gap was made by the World Economic Forum in 2005; see Lopez-Claros and Zahidi, 2005. The 2005 index, which was attempting to capture women’s empowerment, used a scale in which the highest score was assigned to the country with the biggest gap in favour of women.

8. As in previous editions of the index, weights derived for the 2006 index were used again this year to allow for comparisons over time. They may be revised in future editions to reflect the evolution of the gender gap over the past decade.

9. This is not strictly accurate in the case of the Health and Survival subindex, where the highest possible value a country can achieve is 0.9796. However, for purposes of simplicity, we will refer to this value as 1 throughout the chapters and in all tables, figures and Country Profiles.

10. Because of the special equality benchmark value of 0.9796 for the Health and Survival subindex, it is not strictly accurate that the equality benchmark for the overall index score is 1. This value is in fact (1 + 1 + 1 + 0.9796) / 4 = 0.9949. However, for purposes of simplicity, we will refer to the overall equality benchmark as 1 throughout the chapters and in all tables, figures and Economy Profiles.

11. Since the indicators in the subindexes are weighted by the standard deviations, the final scores for the subindexes and the overall index are not a pure measure of the gap vis-à-vis the equality benchmark, and therefore cannot be strictly interpreted as percentage values measuring the closure of the gender gap. However, for ease of interpretation and intuitive appeal, we will be using the percentage concept as a rough interpretation of the final scores.

12. UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Total Net Enrollment Rate, accessed 22 June 2020, http://uis.unesco.org/en/glossary-term/total-net-enrolment-rate. Endnotes Global Gender Gap Report 66 EMBARGOED Endnotes

13. UNESCO, Incheon Declaration and SDG 4 - Education 2030 Framework for Action, 2015, https://apa.sdg4education2030.org/sites/apa.sdg4education2030. org/files/2020-12/Education2030%20Incheon%20Declaration%20and%20 Framework%20for%20Action.pdf.

14. UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) Technical Cooperation Group, Revising SDG4 Indicators in Anticipation of Post-COVID Changes in Education Systems, April 2020, https://tcg.uis.unesco.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/04/ Revising-SDG-4-Ind-Post-Covid.pdf; UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), UIS Data Release Features New SDG 4 Indicators and Disaggregated Dimensions, 22 September 2021, http://uis.unesco.org/en/news/uis-data-release-features-newsdg-4-indicators-and-disaggregated-dimensions.

15. UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Gross Enrolment Ratio, accessed 22 June 2020, http://uis.unesco.org/en/glossary-term/gross-enrolment-ratio.

16. International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO), www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/stat/isco/.

17. International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/isced-2011-en.pdf.

Hausmann, R., "Learning Without Theory", Project Syndicate, 30 March 2016, https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/learning-without-theory-by-ricardohausmann-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.