And What Are the Pitfalls in Gender Study?

• Author: Saith, Ruhi

William Petty's aphorism, "to measure is the first step to improve", succinctly summarizes the role of economic and social indicators, like those of income, health, nutrition and education, in mainstreaming gender. Between measurement and improvement, however, lies the stage of interpretation, and it is as well to be aware of possible pitfalls, mainly three: inappropriate indicators, use and interpretation. Consider the following examples:

Inappropriate indicators:

The use of life expectancy as a health indicator. In many developing countries, female mortality continues to be higher than male in younger age groups, despite biological reasons to believe that males are more susceptible. Thus mortality rates (or sex ratios) at specific age groups may be more appropriate indicators of gender discrimination in health.

Differences in male and female enrolment rates cannot automatically be interpreted as reflecting equal access. If girls have to miss school more often than boys or cannot give as much time as boys to their homework after school in order to do household reproductive work, this means less access even though enrolment rates are the same for males and females.

Use of anthropometric measures like height and weight to assess gender bias cannot pick up situations where discrimination is so severe and directed as to result in death (e.g. abortion of unwanted girl children), rather than causing a general neglect. A more appropriate indicator would be "sex ratio at birth".

Inappropriate use of indicators:

Anthropometric measurement norms below which a person is to be considered undernourished could be derived from the local population from amongst a well-fed group. If gender inequality already exists here, such norms render gender-selective under-nutrition unnoticed.

In assessing gender differences in food intake, if the difference in energy requirements between males and females is not taken into account, a higher energy intake by males may be wrongly construed as indicative of anti-female discrimination, just as workload of women, especially those involved in hard agricultural labour and heavy household work, may be underestimated, with disadvantages in energy intake-expenditure relationships being undetected.

Misinterpretation of indicators: Indicators convey differing meanings in specific social contexts. If information obtained from indicators is interpreted outside the context it was obtained from, it can be misleading. Consider the...