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EVERY WOMAN IS A STATISTIC OF ONE - POEM
Every woman, every girl, is a statistic of one.
Her unique importance goes well beyond numbers.
She is someone’s daughter, sister, wife, mother, friend.
Her value is beyond measure, on a personal level.
Gender Statistics, Data Disaggregated by Sex, Gender,
Are vital for driving forward social policy, rights, and
advocacy,
And for progressing towards more women’s empowerment, equality.
But women are real, and we must consider the human dimension.
The statistics on women’s and girls’ violence, rape, femicide,
abduction,
Displacement, refugee status, maternal mortality, trafficking,
illiteracy +
Show the serious issues that we as women face in today’s complex
world,
Where women and girls bear the physical and mental scars of
pervasive conflict.
But we know that each female is cherished by those near and dear
to her,
That her presence in their lives brings feelings and emotions,
heart and soul.
In a globalized, often impersonal, power and money-driven world,
rampant with inequality,
Let us always remember that EACH WOMAN, EACH GIRL, IS A SPECIAL
STATISTIC OF ONE.
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The global gender statistics programme of the United Nations Statistics Division aims at developing concepts and methods, supporting and enhancing national statistical offices’ capacity and fostering inter-agency collaboration and cooperation for the development of statistics to address gender-based policy issues.
WHAT ARE GENDER STATISTICS?
2013/05/14 - Gender statistics are defined as statistics that adequately reflect differences and inequalities in the situation of women and men in all areas of life (United Nations, 2006).This definition closely follows the Beijing Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, which requested national, regional and international statistical services to “ensure that statistics related to individuals are collected, compiled, analysed and presented by sex and age and reflect problems, issues and questions related to women and men in society” (United Nations, 1995, para 206 (a)). There are several requirements imbedded in the definition of gender statistics (Hedman et al, 1996; United Nations, 2001a; 2001b; 2002; 2006; 2007; Corner, 2003). First, gender statistics have to reflect gender issues - questions, problems and concerns related to all aspects of women’s and men’s lives, including their specific needs, opportunities, or contributions to society. In every society there are differences between what is expected, allowed and valued in a woman and what is expected allowed and valued in a man. These differences have a specific impact on women’s and men’s lives throughout all life stages, and determine, for example, differences in health, education, work, family life, or general well-being. Producing gender statistics entails disaggregating individual data by sex and other characteristics to reveal those differences or inequalities, and collecting data on specific issues that affect one sex more than the other or relate to gender relations between women and men. Second, gender statistics should adequately reflect differences and inequalities in the situation of women and men. It means that concepts and definitions used in data collection are developed in such a way that the diversity of various groups of women and men, their specific activities and challenges are captured. Also, data collection should be based on methods that reduce gender bias in data collection, such as underreporting of women’s economic activity, underreporting of violence against women, or undercounting of girls, their births or their deaths.
In summary, gender statistics are defined by the sum of the following characteristics:
Gender statistics are more than
data disaggregated by sex. The characteristics above are useful in
differentiating between sex-disaggregated statistics (the first requirement in
the list above) and gender statistics (incorporating all four requirements).
Sex-disaggregated statistics are simply data collected and tabulated separately
for women and men. Having data by sex does not guarantee, for example, that
data collection instruments involved in data production were conceived to
reflect gender roles, relations and inequalities in society (United Nations
Statistics Division, 2001a). Furthermore, some statistics that incorporate a
gender perspective are not necessarily statistics presented disaggregated by
sex. For example, national accounts statistics incorporating a gender
perspective take into account both women’s and men’s contribution to all social
and economic areas, including unpaid work.
Confusion between “sex” and “gender” still persists among producers and users
of statistics (United Nations Statistics Division, 2001a; United Nations, 2002;
Corner, 2003; UNECE and the World Bank Institute, 2010). The word “sex” refers
to biological differences between women and men. Biological differences are
fixed and unchangeable and do not vary across cultures and overtime. “Gender”
refers to socially-constructed differences in attributes and opportunities
associated with being female or male and to the social interactions and
relationships between women and men. Gender determines what is expected,
allowed and valued in a woman or a man in a given context. In most societies,
there are differences and inequalities between women and men in roles and
responsibilities assigned, activities undertaken, access to and control over
resources, as well as decision-making opportunities. These differences and
inequalities between the sexes are shaped over by the history of social
relations, and change over time and across cultures.
The term “gender” has often been wrongly used in association with data. “Gender
disaggregation” or “data disaggregated by gender” are incorrect terms. Gender
statistics are disaggregated by sex, an individual-level characteristics
commonly recorded in censuses, surveys and administrative sources, and not by
gender, a social concept relevant at the level of a population group(Corner,
2003). When data on demographic, social or economic characteristics are
collected in the field, it is the sex of a person that is recorded as female
(woman) or male (female), not the gender. Sex-disaggregated data, however, when
analysed, have the capacity to reveal differences in women’s and men’s lives
that are the result of gender roles and expectations.
Gender statistics should not be equated with women’s statistics. The
understanding of gender statistics, their uses and users has changed over time
(Hedman et al, 1996; Corner, 2003). Initial work focused on producing
statistics on women, in the context where many countries were collecting data
by sex, but most of the data were analysed and/or made available to the users
as totals, without the possibility of differentiating between women and men.
The demand for data and indicators on women came from women’s organizations and
women’s advocates, who needed statistics to support new policies and programmes
oriented toward reducing the disadvantages of women. Since then, however, the
focus has shifted from “women only” to “women and men” both in terms of
statistics and in terms of policies. In terms of statistics, it became clear
that the situation of women could be adequately described and analysed only by
comparison to men. In addition, statisticians have recognized that improvement
is needed in statistics on men as well (Hedman et al, 1996). Specific issues
related to men’s lives – such as harmful use of drinking and smoking, greater
risk of accidents or other injuries, or access to paid paternity leave – have
been increasingly taken into account and covered by gender statistics. In terms
of policies, the change of focus from women to gender has been based on the
recognition that isolating women’s concerns from mainstream development
policies and strategies has have a limited impact, and that paying more
attention to the roles and responsibilities of both women and men and their
interrelationships can further improve the effectiveness of policies.