The “feminization of poverty” is often referred to without adequate specification or substantiation, and does not necessarily highlight aspects of poverty that are most relevant to women at the grassroots. The United Nations Development Programme's gender indices go some way to reflecting...

This paper describes work underway to enrich the present tools to measure women's empowerment -- particularly the Gender-related Development Index (GDI) and the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM). The authors are developing an African Gender and Development Index (AGDI) on behalf of the Economic...

This paper critically reviews conceptual and empirical problems issues with the United Nations Development Programme's two gender-related indicators: the Gender-related Development Index and the Gender Empowerment Measure. While supporting the need for gender-related development measures, the...

Human Development, if not engendered, is endangered. That is the simple but far-reaching message of Human Development Report 1995. The Report analyses the progress made in reducing gender disparities in the past few decades, highlighting the wide and persistent gap between women's expanding...

This article examines variation in the labor market success of female and male immigrants in the USA across different countries of origin. Labor market success is measured by the wages of immigrants, and the regression model includes the Gender Development Index (GDI) and the Gender Empowerment...

Purpose – Gender empowerment measure (GEM) is an assessment about inequalities between men's and women's opportunities in a country. The concept of empowerment can be explored through three interrelated dimensions: agency, resources and achievements. Agency refers to processes by which choices...

This review discusses the religious and cultural challenges to the empowerment of women in some patriarchal societies in Africa. The article takes a critical reflection on some of the contextual deficiencies of the gender empowerment measure (GEM) developed by the United Nations Development...

This paper argues that the Gender Empowerment Measure is an incomplete and biased index on women's empowerment, which measures inequality among the most educated and economically advantaged and fails to include important non-economic dimensions of decision-making power both at the household...

This article reviews the literature critiquing the United Nations Development Programme’s Gender-related Development Index (GDI), which is a measure of human development penalized for the extent of gender inequality in each country; presents several original critiques of GDI; and presents...