Social equity indicators
Gender Inequality Index (GII)
A UNDP composite index measuring the loss of human development due to gender inequality across reproductive health, empowerment, and labour market participation.
Definition
The Gender Inequality Index is a UNDP composite measure, introduced in the 2010 Human Development Report, that reflects inequality in achievements between women and men in three dimensions — reproductive health, empowerment, and the labour market — using five indicators: maternal mortality ratio, adolescent fertility rate, parliamentary representation, secondary education attainment, and labour force participation. Values range from 0 (equality) to 1 (complete inequality), interpreted as the percentage of potential human development lost.
References
composition and interpretation
official definition
Overview
What it means
Unlike the GDI, which compares HDI levels, the GII directly measures losses from inequality and includes reproductive health — the first inequality index to do so. Higher values indicate worse outcomes: no country achieves zero, meaning every country forfeits some human development to gender inequality.
How it is used
GII is a standard reference in SDG 5 reporting, country gender diagnostics, and policy evaluation, used alongside GDI and the Global Gender Gap Index for complementary perspectives.
Why it matters
It quantifies gender inequality as a development cost, making the case that equality is not only a rights issue but a measurable drag on national progress.
Review
Public comments appear only after editor acceptance. Draft comments stay in the review queue.
Reviewers choose the definition or an overview paragraph, leave a comment or replacement, and attach evidence or a source link.
Editors compare reviewer cards side by side. AI may help find agreement, conflicts, unsupported claims and possible source issues.
Only an editor-accepted synthesis changes the public page. Reviewer identities are shown only with consent and an editorial decision to attribute them.
Submitted reviews stay private until an editor decides whether to accept and attribute them.
Contribute to this entry
Help improve this definition
Your contribution is private while it is checked. Nothing changes on this page unless an editor accepts it.
Loading verified endorsements… Endorsements are not votes and never determine publication.
Endorse this definition
Endorse the exact version shown here. This is not a vote, and publication remains an editorial decision.
Review board
Comment on a specific line. Each reviewer stays separate until an editor accepts a merged draft.
Each person comments on the definition or overview in their own draft card, with role, evidence and suggested wording kept together.
AI can compare comments against the current text, flag conflicting claims, surface missing evidence and identify where reviewers agree.
An editor merges compatible suggestions into a draft change, checks sources, records disagreements and decides what can be published.