Reliability and Validity of International Gender Indices
Reliability and Validity of International Gender Indices
Thursday, 10 July 2025: 01:00
Location: FSE003 (Faculty of Education Sciences (FSE))
Oral Presentation
UN Women reports that without change, it could take 300 years to achieve full gender equality. Meanwhile SDG5 “Gender Equality” has to be achieved by 2030.
SDG goals are reflected in international gender indices composed by United Nations, World Economic Forum, World Bank and some other organizations. The contradiction arises the question of reliability and validity of the indices.
Since 2022 the organizations mentioned above have excluded Russia from international gender indices despite the availability of statistical data. This had happened over the years of ranking: some countries (Afghanistan, Gabon, Zambia, Iraq, Iran, Niger, Syria, etc.) are periodically excluded from calculations for some political reasons.
In addition, a number of developing countries and micro-states do not collect or provide gender statistics to international organizations, which leads to data gaps for cross-country comparisons. In turn, international organizations do not create a demand for data collection on additional indicators important for gender measurement, and national statistical bureaus which synchronize state statistics with international statistics, do not collect additional gender statistics. This situation, firstly, creates a vicious circle of limited gender statistics, secondly, it does not allow to fully assess some areas of gender discrimination, and thirdly, it disorients national governments in the vectors of combating gender discrimination.
Moreover, international organizations use indicators for the last available year for calculations, and this year may be different for different countries, which makes it impossible to track progress in the fight for women's rights in specific states and in cross-country comparisons correctly. All of the above calls into question the reliability and validity of international gender indices; the question also arises about the presented and hidden social objectives of international gender inequality ratings.
SDG goals are reflected in international gender indices composed by United Nations, World Economic Forum, World Bank and some other organizations. The contradiction arises the question of reliability and validity of the indices.
Since 2022 the organizations mentioned above have excluded Russia from international gender indices despite the availability of statistical data. This had happened over the years of ranking: some countries (Afghanistan, Gabon, Zambia, Iraq, Iran, Niger, Syria, etc.) are periodically excluded from calculations for some political reasons.
In addition, a number of developing countries and micro-states do not collect or provide gender statistics to international organizations, which leads to data gaps for cross-country comparisons. In turn, international organizations do not create a demand for data collection on additional indicators important for gender measurement, and national statistical bureaus which synchronize state statistics with international statistics, do not collect additional gender statistics. This situation, firstly, creates a vicious circle of limited gender statistics, secondly, it does not allow to fully assess some areas of gender discrimination, and thirdly, it disorients national governments in the vectors of combating gender discrimination.
Moreover, international organizations use indicators for the last available year for calculations, and this year may be different for different countries, which makes it impossible to track progress in the fight for women's rights in specific states and in cross-country comparisons correctly. All of the above calls into question the reliability and validity of international gender indices; the question also arises about the presented and hidden social objectives of international gender inequality ratings.
Test-retest reliability, convergent and construct validity of 8 international gender indices have been evaluated and will be discussed at the session.