Gender Data and Statistics – measurement of social norms
UN Women Community of Practice meeting
Date: Wednesday 12 June 2023, 14:00-16:30 am EAT; 13:00-15:30 am CAT
Education is seen as one of the critical pathways towards gender equality. Not being able to read or write is a significant barrier for underprivileged women and contributes towards their inability to access and exercise their human rights and make them more vulnerable to unfair and unjust treatment. For many decades the focus has been on getting more girls into schools. Based on data generated by in-country monitoring systems, such as for example those supported by UNESCO UIS, more girls are getting education at higher levels than ever before and at primary level we have reached enrollment parity in most countries. However, these changes have not necessarily been reflecting in the general empowerment of women, their participation in governance and public life, as well as labour market outcomes. We also know that there are still significant inequalities in secondary and tertiary education in general, as well as in relation to areas of study, with women being over-represented in the humanities and social sciences and significantly under-represented in engineering, science and technology.
During the past two decades we have seen a shift away from basic access to education indicators (MDG framework) to more outcomes based measures (SDG Goal 4). During this COP we will ask whether current measurement frameworks adequately lend itself to measuring gender equality in education and if not, what we should do differently.
The COP meeting will focus on gender statistics and education and how education statistics can contribute towards better measuring the educational outcomes for women and girls and is aimed at:
- Showcasing some of the recent developments in measurement tools for education with special reference to administrative data (UNESCO) and household survey data (UNICEF)
- Exploring the association between key gender and education indicators and outcomes for women and girls
- Discussing how gender in education data is being used to inform Government policies and programs.