Measuring and Monitoring Gender Equality: Pakistan Gender Gap Index (PGGI)

Abstract

Gender-based inequality is a trend that affects the majority of the country's population. It is fundamental to develop the frameworks for capturing the magnitude of these disparities in order to design effective measures for reducing gender inequality. The study based on the subsequent objectives which is to measure and monitor gender equality through the Pakistan Gender Gap Index (PGGI). The PGGI is calculated to determine and examine the scope of gender inequality in Pakistan. A multidimensional concept, taking in to relation with health, education, economic activity and political and economic empowerment of women has been discussed in measuring gender inequality. The trends shown by calculating the PGGI is that the level of gender inequality in Pakistan turned down sharply over the period 1990 to 2010 relatively low level of improvement as compared to previous years. The percentage contributions to overall gender inequality of the four sub-dimensions highlights the largest inequality comes from the dimension for economic activity. The sub-dimensions of education 20.10 % and health 4.64 % are the two components which show little improvement and reduce the gap among gender.