Gender inequality index (GII)

Variable Definition

This measure was adapted from the Gender Inequality Index developed by the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), which uses country-level data to characterize three dimensions: health (maternal mortality and adolescent birth rates), empowerment (education and government), and the labor market (labor force participation). This index is a measure of the loss in potential human development due to inequality between women and men in these three dimensions. It ranges from 0, indicating a context where women and men fare equally, to 1, indicating a context in which one gender fares poorly compared to the other in all measured dimensions. For SALURBAL cities, we adapted the index to capture gender-based disadvantage and created 2 versions, one including the three dimensions and the other one including only two dimensions: empowerment and the labor market. This is the verion using all three dimentions. It was constructed using city level data from vital registrations and population projections, census: % female and male labor force participation, % female and male population 25+ with at least high school education, and the % women and men in mayoral positions in the government for the period of 2010-2015 obtained from different sources for each country. To construct the index, we followed the formulas described by UNDP.