The gender gap: inequality is also in the data

Today, 8 March is the day on which we commemorate women's struggle to achieve their full participation in society, as well as giving visibility to the current gender inequality and demanding global action for effective equality of rights in all areas.

However, the data seem to indicate that we still have some way to go in this respect. 70% of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty are women. Women predominate in global food production (up to 80% in some areas), but own less than 10% of the land. Eighty per cent of people displaced by disasters and climate-related changes worldwide are women and girls. And the situation for women has only worsened due to the pandemic, causing the estimate of the time needed to close the current gender gap to now grow to more than 135 years.

The importance of data in the fight for equality

It is therefore a fact that women have fallen behind on many of the sustainable development indicators, an inequality that is also being replicated in the digital world - and even amplified through the increasing use of algorithms that lack the necessary training data to be representative of women's reality. But it is also a fact that we do not even have all the data we need to know with certainty where we stand on a large number of key indicators.

There is a widespread shortage of gender data that cuts across all economic and social sectors. The World Bank, the European Union, the OECD, the United Nations, UNICEF, the ITU or the IMF - more and more international bodies are making their own particular efforts to compile their own gender databases. However, indicators are still lacking in many key areas, in addition to other important gaps in the quality of existing data that are often incomplete or outdated.

This lack of data is something that can be particularly problematic when it comes to such sensitive issues as gender-based violence - an area where we are fortunately seeing more and more data globally, including some great and encouraging examples such as the ILDA-led femicide data initiative. This is a very important step forward because it is even more difficult to improve when we don't even know what the current situation is. Data, and the governance policies we create to manage it, can also be sexist.

Data are tools for making better decisions and better policies. They allow us to set goals and measure our progress. Data has therefore become an indispensable tool for creating social impact in communities. This is why the lack of data on the lives of women and girls is so damaging.

Addressing the gender gap through data

In seeking solutions to this problem, and thus working for gender equality also through data, it is crucial that we involve the protagonists and give them a voice. In this way, through their own experiences, we can develop more inclusive processes for data collection, analysis and publication. We will then be in a much better position to use data as an inclusive tool to address gender equality. Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren Klein's excellent Data Feminism Handbook provides a set of strategies and principles to guide us in doing this:

1. Examining power - Data feminism begins by looking at how power operates in the world.
2. Challenging power - We must commit to challenging power structures when they are unequal and working for equity.
3. Empowering emotions and embodiment - Data feminism teaches us to value multiple forms of knowledge, including that which comes from people.
4. Rethink binarisms and hierarchies - We must challenge gender binarism, as well as other systems of quantification and classification that could lead to various forms of marginalisation.
5. Embrace pluralism - The most complete knowledge emerges from synthesising multiple perspectives, prioritising local knowledge and experiences.
6. Consider context - Data are neither neutral nor objective. They are products of unequal social relations, and understanding that context will be essential to ethical and accurate analysis.
7. Make the work visible - The work of data science is the collaborative product of many people. All of this work must be made visible, so that it can be recognised and valued.

Nuestras opciones para contribuir a reducir la brecha de datos

In order to make progress in this fight for equality, we need much more gender-disaggregated data that adequately reflects the concerns of women and girls, their diversity and all aspects of their lives. We can and should all do our part in drawing attention to the disadvantages women face through data. Here are some tips:

• Start by always collecting and publishing data disaggregated by gender.
• Always use women as a reference group in our calculations when we are dealing with inequalities that affect them directly.
• Document the decisions we make and our methodologies in working with gender data, including any changes in our approaches over time and their justification.
• Always share raw and complete data in an open and reusable format. In this way, even if we have not focused on the challenges women face, at least others can do so using the same data.

Together we can make the invisible visible and finally ensure that every single woman and girl in the world is counted. The situation is urgent and now is the time to make a determined bid to close the data gap as a necessary tool to close the gender gap as well.

Content prepared by Carlos Iglesias, Open data Researcher and consultant, World Wide Web Foundation. The contents and views expressed in this publication are the sole responsibility of the author.