Unit 3: How to mainstream gender in ILO operations
Information collection
The production of gender statistics requires not only that all official data are collected by sex, but also that concepts and methods used in data collection and presentation adequately reflect gender issues in society and take in consideration all factors that can produce gender-based bias.
The following table highlights the main characteristics of yesterday’s approach on statistics on women and the new gender statistics approach.
YESTERDAY’S APPROACH |
TODAY’S APPROACH |
| Statistics on women | Gender statistics |
For whom? |
|
Statistics on women for women’s advocacy |
Statistics on women and men on all spheres of society for all policy makers, planners and ordinary people. |
What are the problems? |
|
There are no statistics on women. |
Statistics do not reflect gender issues. |
Systematic errors or biases often occur in statistics on women and men. |
|
What needs to be done? |
|
Statistics have to be collected by sex and statistics and indicators have to be calculated, analysed and presented for women only. |
All statistics have to be produced, analysed and presented by sex and reflect gender issues in society. |
Statistics on women have to be:
|
The production of gender statistics has to be integrated into the entire statistical system for:
|
Whose responsibility is it? |
|
Women’s machinery/organisations |
Official statistical system |
Working with gender statistics
Ideally, the production of gender statistics should be integrated into the overall production of statistics and all statistics should reflect gender issues in society. During the last ten years much has been done to improve gender statistics worldwide. Efforts to change international standards, concepts and methods to better reflect the reality of women and men have begun to affect the production of gender statistics in the world.
Data presentation and dissemination
A crucial area of work in gender statistics concerns the presentation and dissemination of data. Statistics on women and men are often produced but not available to users. Also, data are often analysed and presented without considering users’ needs and thus fail to reach the target audiences.
One strategy has been to strengthen the dialogue between producers of statistics and various groups of users. This has facilitated the identification of topics to be addressed and analysed and the preparation of user-friendly publications that can reach a large audience.
Concepts and methods
Conventional concepts and methods used in data collection are often inadequate to reflect the realities of women and men. Also, with deep changes in societies¾ in family, economic and public life¾ new policy concerns have emerged that need to be reflected in new concepts and new methods of data collection and analysis.
Definitions and classifications have been revised to better reflect women’s and men’s situations and contributions. Important areas of concern are the measurement of:
Also, the New System of National Accounts, recently revised by the United Nations, recommends the inclusion of all production of goods within the household for own-consumption¾ usually through unpaid work largely contributed by women¾ in measuring economic output. Finally, alternative methods of measuring women’s and men’s activities, such as time use studies, have gained increasing interest.
Gender statistics and the Beijing Platform for Action
The following are main needs identified by the Beijing Platform for Action with respect to improved gender statistics:
Power and decisionmaking
Work and economy
Violence and crime
Health and disability
[Adapted from Birgitta Hedman, Francesca Perucci and Pehr Sundstrom, Engendering Statistics: A Tool for Change, Sida and Statistics Sweden, 1996.]