In recent years, the demand for statistical information on gender equality by the media, policymakers and the scientific world has grown considerably together with the rapid and substantial changes that have characterized the lifestyles of men and women in society. The need for better statistics to monitor gender equality was again emphasised at Beijing+20 Regional Review Meeting in November 2014.

While gender equality indicators in some areas, such as poverty, entrepreneurship, media, and relationships in the household, are not sufficiently developed, there is a proliferation of gender equality indicators in other domains, such as education, economy, power and decision-making in society. To systematize the indicators, identify the key indicators that national statistical agencies would need to produce, and to plan further methodological work, the Conference of European Statisticians established a task force of gender statistics experts. The result of their work is presented in the publication Indicators of Gender Equality.

It includes a selection of 115 gender equality indicators categorized into:

• 42 headline indicators, which cover the most essential aspects. Their purpose is to provide simple and clear information to decision makers and the public about progress towards internationally agreed gender related policy objectives.
• 73 supporting indicators provide further information on more specific aspects of gender equality. They are valuable to achieve a deeper comprehension of the phenomenon.

The indicators are grouped in eight thematic domains inspired by the Beijing Platform for Action – poverty, education and training, health, violence against women, economy, including the labour market and work-and-family issues, power and decision-making, media, environment, children and adolescents. The established set of indicators helps national statistical agencies prioritize their outputs in gender statistics and improve their international comparability.

UNECE keeps a Gender Database where comparable data on many of the indicators are collected for 52 countries in Europe and North America and Central Asia. Examined for the 20-year review of the Beijing Platform for Action, these indicators lead to the overall conclusion that the region as a whole has moved significantly towards more gender equality, but gender gaps remain in many areas to the disadvantage of women, notably in employment, wages and decision-making positions. For headline indicators in several domains, such as poverty and violence against women, comparable data are not yet available. The publication recommends expanding the coverage of headline indicators in the UNECE Gender Database to improve the monitoring of gender equality in national and international levels.

The publication is available at: http://www.unece.org/publications/gender_equality.html