The Gender Inequalities Index (GII) as a new way to measure Gender Inequalities in Developing countries

The measurement of gender inequalities has become an important topic in the academic literature. First, appropriate indicators are needed to compare the relative situation of women in developing countries. Second, there is renewed attention given to the relationship between gender inequality and economic growth. Measuring gender inequalities contributes to knowing whether greater inequality promotes or hampers growth. This paper aims to develop a new methodology in order to build an aggregate index of gender inequalities in developing countries : the Gender Inequalities Index (GII). Using Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA), the GII aggregates different dimensions of gender inequalities in order to determine endogenously the weight of each variable.