Social Institutions and Gender Index

The Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) is an index designed to measure gender equality in a society. SIGI is a composite indicator of gender equality, introduced by the OECD Development Centre in 2007. It solely focuses on social institutions that impact the roles of men and women, such as a society's norms, values and attitudes that relate to women.^[1]

Construction of the Indicator

SIGI is based on a selection of indicators from the Gender, Institutions and Development (GID) Database. It specifically draws on the GID's social institutions variables that are grouped into five categories or subindices: Family Code, Physical Integrity, Civil Liberties, Son Preference and Ownership Rights. The index is an unweighted average of these 5 subindices and measures on a scale from 0 to 1 the level of gender inequality in social institutions (higher levels indicate greater inequality). Each term in the SIGI formula is squared to allow for partial comparison. The indicators that compose the SIGI would yield uniformly high or even perfect scores for OECD member countries, given that legal discrimination against women is not present in most of these countries. However, significant gender inequality may nevertheless exist in OECD member countries; therefore, SIGI scores are only calculated for non-OECD countries to avoid misleading comparisons.^[1]

Use of the Indicator

Econometric analysis using the SIGI have shown the significant impact of social institutions on gender equality outcomes. For example, higher levels of gender inequality in social institutions are strongly correlated to lower participation of women in paid labor.^[2] However, higher levels of inequality are not necessarily associated with lower levels of per capita income. Some high-income countries in the Middle East and North Africa region, for example, have high levels of gender inequality. Education, on the other hand, seems to be a strong promoter of women's rights. The higher the percentage of women who can read and write, the lower the discrimination they suffer in social institutions.^[3]

See also

• Gender equality
• Gender inequality
• Gender Parity Index
• Gender Empowerment Measure
• Gender Gap Index
• Gender-related Development Index

References

1. Branisa, Boris; Klasen, Stephan; Ziegler, Maria; Drechsler, Denis; Jütting, Johannes. "The Institutional Basis of Gender Inequality: The Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI)". Feminist Economics 20 (2): 29–64. doi:10.1080/13545701.2013.850523.
2. "Discrimination in Social Institutions and Women’s Participation in the Labour Force - A Strong Relationship | Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI)". genderindex.org. Retrieved 2016-04-21.
3. "Social Institutions, Literacy and Growth | Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI)". genderindex.org. Retrieved 2016-04-21.

Bibliography

• Boris Branisa, Stephan Klasen, Maria Ziegler, Denis Drechsler, and Johannes Jütting (2013): The institutional basis of gender inequality: the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI). Feminist Economics, Published online: 11 Dec 2013.
• Boris Branisa, Stephan Klasen, and Maria Ziegler (2013): Gender Inequality in Social Institutions and Gendered Development Outcomes, World Development, Volume 45, May 2013, Pages 252–268
• Johannes Jütting, Christian Morrisson, Jeff Dayton Johnson, and Denis Drechsler (2008): Measuring Gender (In)Equality: The OECD Gender, Institutions and Development Data Base, Journal of Human Development, Volume 9, Issue 1 March 2008, pages 65 – 86.

External links

• Social Institutions and Gender Index, official website