Statistical Terms Glossary

Series of activities that aim at strengthening people’s skills and knowledge on a certain matter, in this case gender equality.

Refers to a process of being fair to women and men with the objective of reducing unjust and avoidable inequality between women and men in health status, access to health services and their contributions to the health workforce.

Gender equality in the world of work, within the ILO Decent Work Agenda, refers to: (a) Equality of opportunity and treatment in employment; (b) Equal remuneration for work of equal value; (c) Equal access to safe and healthy working environments and to social security; (d) Equality in association and collective bargaining; (e) Equality in obtaining a meaningful career development; (f) A balance between work and home life that is fair to both women and men; (g) Equal participation in decision-making, including in the constitutive ILO organs.

Unique measurement tool that synthesises the complexity of gender equality as a multidimensional concept into a user-friendly and easily interpretable measure.

An umbrella term encompassing all strategies to achieve gender equality. Important examples include gender mainstreaming, gender analysis, prevention and response to gender-based violence and sexual exploitation and abuse, promotion and protection of human rights, empowerment of women and girls and gender balance in the workplace.

Any educational tool or process that aims to make policymakers and other actors in the EU and Member States more aware of gender equality issues, build their gender competence and enable them to promote gender equality goals in their work at all levels.

The process of being fair to men and women, boys and girls, and importantly the equality of outcomes and results. Gender equity may involve the use of temporary special measures to compensate for historical or systemic bias or discrimination. It refers to differential treatment that is fair and positively addresses a bias or disadvantage that is due to gender roles or norms or differences between the sexes. Equity ensures that women and men and girls and boys have an equal chance, not only at the starting point, but also when reaching the finishing line. It is about the fair and just treatment of both sexes that takes into account the different needs of the men and women, cultural barriers and (past) discrimination of the specific group.

Gender expression is the way in which we express our gender through actions and appearance. Gender expression can be any combination of masculine, feminine and androgynous. For a lot of people, their gender expression goes along with the ideas that our societies deem to be appropriate for their gender. For other people it does not. People whose gender expression does not fit into society’s norms and expectations, such as men perceived as ‘feminine’ and women perceived as ‘masculine’ often face harsh sanctions, including physical, sexual and psychological violence and bullying. A person’s gender expression is not always linked to the person’s biological sex, gender identity or sexual orientation.

Gender focal points are change agents whose overriding role is one of advocating for increased attention to and integration of gender equality and women’s empowerment in his or her agency’s policy and programming and in the related work of development partners. Gender focal points serve as a hub for new information on gender equality and as a conduit for information on what has worked well in the organization. The role of gender focal points differs somewhat from country to country and agency to agency, depending on where she or he is placed within the organization and what kind of gender architecture the organization has in place. A gender focal point is not, however, intended to serve as a substitute for a full-time institutional gender specialist. The focal point’s role is often more one of advocacy and facilitating communication and connections related to gender equality and women’s empowerment, but may at times involve providing gender expertise or assisting colleagues and development partners to identify potential national or international consultants or organizations that have this expertise. Basic functions may include: coordinating the organization/office/program gender mainstreaming strategy; contributing gender information and technical support for inclusion of gender issues; supporting capacity development on gender equality within the organization; knowledge management; and coordination on interagency initiatives, among others.

The gender gap is the difference in any area between women and men in terms of their levels of participation, access to resources, rights, power and influence, and remuneration and benefits.

Gender identity reflects a deeply felt and experienced sense of one’s own gender. Everyone has a gender identity, which is part of their overall identity. A person’s gender identity is typically aligned with the sex assigned to them at birth. Cisgender is a term used to describe people whose sense of their own gender is aligned with the sex that they were assigned at birth.Transgender (sometimes shortened to “trans”) is an umbrella term used to describe people with a wide range of identities – including transsexual people, cross-dressers (sometimes referred to as “transvestites”), people who identify as third gender, and others whose appearance and characteristics are seen as gender atypical and whose sense of their own gender is different to the sex that they were assigned at birth. Trans women identify as women but were classified as males when they were born. Trans men identify as men but were classified female when they were born.

Policy tool for the screening of a given policy proposal, in order to detect and assess its differential impact or effects on women and men, so that these imbalances can be redressed before the proposal is endorsed.

Examining policy proposals to see whether they will affect women and men differently, with a view to adapting these proposals to make sure that discriminatory effects are neutralised and that gender equality is promoted.

A useful tool in monitoring gender differences, gender-related changes over time and progress towards gender equality goals. In general, indicators are statistics with a reference point (a norm or a benchmark) against which value judgments can be made. Indicators have a normative nature, in the sense that a change from the reference point in a particular direction can be interpreted as "good" or "bad". In the case of gender statistics, the status of women in a particular country is usually evaluated by reference to (comparison with) the situation of men in that country. In a few cases, such as for maternal mortality or access to antenatal services, the norm is the situation of women in other countries.

Legal, social and cultural situation in which sex and/or gender determine different rights and dignity for women and men, which are reflected in their unequal access to or enjoyment of rights, as well as the assumption of stereotyped social and cultural roles.

Presents a composite measure of gender inequality using three dimensions: reproductive health, empowerment and the labour market. The reproductive health indicators are the maternal mortality ratio and the adolescent birth rate. The empowerment indicators are the share of parliamentary seats held by women and the share of population with at least some secondary education by gender. The labour market indicator is participation in the labour force by gender. A low GII value indicates low inequality between women and men, and vice-versa.

Gender issues refer to questions, problems and concerns related to all aspects of women’s and men’s lives, including their specific needs, opportunities, or contributions to society. Gender equality issues should be the centre of analyses and policy-decisions, medium-term plans, programme budgets, and institutional structures and processes. From a statistics perspective, gender issues should also be at the core of plans and programmes for developing gender statistics by the national statistical systems.

Facts, definitions, and analysis relating to concepts, analysis and goals related to gender equality (e.g. knowledge and understanding of the concept of gender and the division of roles, gender mainstreaming, gender equality, gender budgeting, etc.).

Takes the existing differences between women and men into account when analysing a situation or when developing specific approaches or programmes.

The integration of gender concerns into the analysis, formulation and monitoring of policies, programmes and projects. The objective is to achieve greater equality and thereby reduce gaps between women and men in opportunities and benefits.

Means that gender issues and gender-based biases are taken into account, systematically, in the production of all official statistics and at all stages of data production.

A strategy to accelerate progress on women’s and girls’ rights and equality in relation to men and boys. This is the chosen approach of the United Nations system and international community toward implementation of women’s and girls’ rights, as a subset of human rights to which the United Nations dedicates itself. Gender equality is the goal. Gender mainstreaming is the process of assessing the implications for girls and boys and men and women of any planned action, including legislation, policies and programmes. It is a strategy for making girls’ and women’s, as well as boy’s and men’s, concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes so that girls and boys and women and men benefit equality, and inequality is not perpetuated.

Process requiring that the monitoring, reporting and evaluation practices of all policies and plans integrate a gender perspective both in processes and inputs as well as in results and impacts, so as to learn how programmes or specific projects affect women’s and men’s lives and to guarantee that inequality is not perpetuated.

The roles of men and women in existing societies and institutions are generally different. Thus, their needs vary accordingly. Two types of needs are usually identified: Practical needs arise from the actual conditions which women and men experience because of the gender roles assigned to them in society. They are often related to women as mothers, homemakers and providers of basic needs, and are concerned with inadequacies in living and working conditions, such as food, water, shelter, income, health care and employment. For women and men in the lower socioeconomic strata, these needs are often linked to survival strategies. Addressing them alone only perpetuates the factors which keep women in a disadvantaged position in their societies. It does not promote gender equality. Strategic needs are the needs required to overcome the subordinate position of women to men in society, and relate to the empowerment of women. They vary according to the particular social, economic and political context in which they are formulated. Usually they concern equality issues such as enabling women to have equal access to job opportunities and training, equal pay for work of equal value, rights to land and other capital assets, prevention of sexual harassment at work and domestic violence, and freedom of choice over childbearing. Addressing them entails a slow transformation of the traditional customs and conventions of a society.

Anything –a concept, an entity, a style of language –that is unassociated with either the male or female gender. The nature of systemic and embedded or internalized bias is such that, unfortunately often, what is perceived to be gender neutral is in fact gender blind.

Gender norms are ideas about how men and women should be and act.  We internalize and learn these “rules” early in life. This sets-up a life-cycle of gender socialization and stereotyping. Put another way, gender norms are the standards and expectations to which gender identity generally conforms, within a range that defines a particular society, culture and community at that point in time.

Gender parity is another term for equal representation of women and men in a given area, for example, gender parity in organizational leadership or higher education. Working toward gender parity (equal representation) is a key part of achieving gender equality, and one of the twin strategies, alongside gender mainstreaming.The gender parity index measures the progress towards gender parity in participation and/or educational opportunities for females compared to males. It also reflects the level of strengthening the position of women in society. It is calculated by dividing the indicator value for females by the indicator value for males. The gender parity index = 1 indicates the parity/equality between females and males. A value of less than 1 generally indicates a disparity in favor of boys/men, while a value greater than 1 indicates disparity in favor of girls/women.

The term ‘gender perspective’ is a way of seeing or analyzing which looks at the impact of gender on people's opportunities, social roles and interactions. This way of seeing is what enables one to carry out gender analysis and subsequently to mainstream a gender perspective into any proposed program, policy or organization.

A planning approach that recognizes the different roles that women and men play in society and the fact that they often have different needs.