Module 2

Technical Workshop on Gender Statistics
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 3-6 Nov 2014
The Production of Gender Statistics
Dr. Jose Ramon “Toots” G. Albert

Senior Research Fellow
Philippine Institute for Development Studies
Email: jrgalbert@gmail.com; jalbert@mail.pids.gov.ph
Learning Objectives
After completing the module, the
participant should be familiar with:
• The role of gender issues in guiding gender statistics
production and use;
• How to identify and assess data needed, sources and
data gaps for gender statistics; and,
• Conceptual and measurement issues, including areas
in the data collection process where gender bias and
other gender-related measurement errors may occur
and provide guidance on how to avoid them;
2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

2
Topics
1. Bringing Gender into
Statistics
 Identifying Priorities for Producing
Gender Statistics
 Data Sources on Gender Statistics
 Gender in Specific Fields
2. Data Collection for
Gender Statistics
 Planning, Design, Instruments,
Data Collection, Processing
3. Bringing Gender into
Data Collection

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1.Bringing Gender into Statistics
To adequately reflect gender issues, statistics
need to:
– provide disaggregation by sex;
– focus on areas of concern where women and
men may not have equal opportunities or
status, or their lives are affected differently;
– consider specific population groups where
gender inequality is likely to be present or more
pronounced;

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1.Bringing Gender into Statistics
– use concepts, definitions and measurement
methods that can reflect women’s and men’s
status, gender roles and relations in society;
– be obtained from sources where the collection

tools take into account factors that might
introduce gender bias into data.

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Identify gender issues
Identify data needed

Key
steps in
Identify and assess sources of data
bringing
gender
issues Identify and address conceptual and measurement issues
into
statistics
Obtain data and produce statistics

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1.1. Identifying Priorities for
Gender Statistics
1. Start by identifying and understanding
the critical gender issues or country
priorities in Ethiopia and the data
needed to address them
– Use country gender assessment or profile, policies
and strategies to identify the key gender issues
– Describing the issues in terms of policy-relevant
questions (e.g. ‘do women earn less than men’)
can help in determining what data are needed.

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Gender Statistics
2. Then assess existing sources in terms
of data availability and quality.
– Population censuses or surveys, administrative
data, special studies
3. Based on this information, identify the
data gaps and their statistical
implications.

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Gender Statistics
4. The statistical implications may
include:
– Better utilization of existing data, such as through
recoding, re-tabulation re-analysis of micro data;
– Improvement in methodology of existing data
collection efforts;
– New data collection, such as a new collection
instrument –for example, a time use survey; or
additions to an existing collection instrument—for
example, a population census;
– Improvement in data dissemination.
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Gender Statistics
5. Set the priorities for developing gender
statistics based on this information and
on available human and economic
resources.
– For example, the Gender Statistics Framework,
GSF
– The monitoring role of the GMO

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1.2. Country Priorities
• National priorities for gender statistics

depend on current policy goals and plans
as well as current statistical capacity.
– Different countries have different priorities.
• Some gender statistics are produced by all
countries. But there is often a gap between
statistics needed to address national
gender goals and statistics currently
produced.
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1.2. Country Priorities
A 2012 UN Global Review of Gender Statistics
Programmes in 33 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa
found that:
Most UNECA countries had national priorities related to gender statistics
generation/collection, compilation and dissemination
Some examples of priorities were:

- Formulate better gender-sensitive policies Most common thematic areas
and monitor their progress covered by the programs were:
- Better knowledge of gender issues for better - Sexual and reproductive health
integration of women - Mortality
- Integrate gender into statistics in order to - Unemployment
adequately meet the need of data users - Poverty
- Mainstreaming gender in socio-economic - Morbidity
and demographic surveys - Education and training

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1.3. What data sources are used in
producing gender statistics?
• Countries use many data sources to produce
gender statistics. The main types are:
– Population and housing censuses
– Population sample surveys
– Business censuses and surveys
– Special topic surveys, e.g., time use or gender
violence surveys
– Administrative records
• Constructing some gender indicators may require
combining data from more than one source.
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1.3. What data sources are used in
producing gender statistics?
• Some data sources provide more sex-disaggregated or
gender-relevant data than others—e.g., demographic
and health, or education, surveys.
• However, most data sources could improve the
collection and quality of gender statistics by
integrating a gender perspective in their planning,
design, development and data collection.
• Data sources will be covered in depth later.

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1.4. Gender in Specific Fields
• There are gender issues, data needs and

measurement challenges in four specific fields:
- Population, households and families
- Education;
- Health and Nutrition; and
- Work/employment and time use
• Keep in mind that the key steps in bringing
gender issues into statistics apply in these as well
as all other fields.
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1.4.1. Population, Households & Families

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A few questions relevant to Ethiopia ....

– Is the sex ratio of the population (males per 100
females) moving towards equality?
– Are women more likely than men to ever having been
married?
– To what degree does age at first marriage differ
between women and men?
– Are there more households headed by women or by
men?
– Which households are more likely to be poor?
– To what extent does life expectancy at birth differ
between women and men?
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What do the statistics show???

• The sex ratio (number of males per 100 females) shows more males
than females .According to the 2011 CSA’s Population projection,
Ethiopia has a population of 94.3 Million out of which 49.5% are
women
• Sixty-three percent of women in Ethiopia are married by age 18,

compared with just 14% of men. The median age at first marriage is
16.5 for women age 25–49 compared with men who marry later, at a
median age of 23.2 (EDHS, 2011)

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What do the statistics show???

• No gender-disaggregated data on poverty (National Report on
Implementation of Beijing Declaraition).*
• Women have a longer life expectancy than men: 64.61 years versus
61.4 years on average (2012 estimates).

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Types of data generally needed to inform gender issues
Data needed: Disaggregation:
• Live births, • By sex, and generally by
• Children ever born to a woman age as well
• Population composition, including age and sex
• Marriages and divorces, duration of marriage
Also important may be:
• Marital status, consensual unions
• geographic area,
• Contraceptive use*
•
• urban/rural area,
Females in reproductive age group*
• Household type by type of household head: single, • migration status,
married, widowed/divorced, male, female • wealth status,
• Young persons by household type • educational attainment,
• Older persons by household type • other variables relevant to
• Older persons living in institutions understanding living
• Family nuclei of lone parents with young children arrangements.
* Reported also in health statistics

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Conceptual and Measurement Issues in producing gender

statistics :
• Household members. In some population censuses and surveys,
female members of the household may be more likely to be
underreported than male members.
 Collection methods may need to be improved and special
promotional material to reach women developed.
• Household type. Classifications of household type may need
adjustment to identify certain types of living arrangements that are
most relevant from a gender perspective, such as households where
the male head has migrated temporarily or permanently for work, or
all-adult households
 Special survey questions or reporting instructions may be
needed to capture these situations
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statistics :
• Informal unions. These may not be adequately covered in statistics, as
the marital status of an individual is usually recorded in relation to the
marriage laws or customs of the country.
 Special survey questions or reporting instructions may be needed
to capture data on informal unions in countries where they are
common.
• Non-marital fertility. Data may not be available or detailed enough to
understand trends.
 Additional or differently worded survey questions may be needed.

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statistics :
• Family planning. Unmet need for family planning has often not been
calculated using a comparable methodology over time. Use of
contraceptive methods may be under-reported.
 It may be necessary to standardise methodology and assess
reporting accuracy.

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1.4.2. Health & Nutrition

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– What are the trends in infant mortality among boys
and girls? Do trends differ between urban and rural
areas? Is gender gap narrowing?
– Is pregnancy-related maternal mortality decreasing?
– What is the prevalence of malnutrition among boys
and girls? Is there an association between child
malnutrition and a mother’s level of education?
– Is HIV prevalence higher among women or men?
– Do females have as much knowledge about AIDS?
What groups have least knowledge?

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Statistics in Ethiopia from EDHS 2011 show that :

– The infant mortality rate decreased by 39 percent
from 97 deaths per 1000 live births in 2000 to 59 in
2010. It is higher for boys (84) than for girls (63), (but
this difference may not be statistically significant); it is
also higher in rural areas.
– Under-five mortality also declined by 47 percent over
the same period, from 166 deaths per 1,000 live births
to 88 deaths per 1,000 live births. It is also higher for
boys (122) than girls (98), (but again this difference
may not be statistically significant).

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– Childhood mortality is higher in rural areas than in urban
areas. These rates were highest in Benishangul-Gumuz
and lowest in Addis Ababa.
– Malnutrition among children under 5 years old is still
quite high, though reducing :
• 44% of children under five are stunted, or too short for their
age, males (46%) slightly more stunted than females (43%);
Stunting is least common among children of more educated
mothers and those from wealthier families; Rural stunting (46%)
worse than urban (32%)
• One-in-ten children under five is wasted

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– Maternal mortality ratio is 676 per 100 thousand live
births for 2011, but this is not statistically significantly
different from 2000 MMR (871), nor 2005 MMR (673).
– HIV prevalence is 0.3% among population aged 15-24.
Among women, it is 0.5%, while among men 0.1%, but
again this difference may not be statistically significant
given the rare event being measured.

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– Knowledge of HIV prevention is better among young
males than young females.
• 81% to 62% among 15-24 years old males and females
respectively know that using condoms consistently reduces
the chance of acquiring HIV infection .
• Women with no education, and women from poor households
are less exposed to knowledge about HIV prevention than
those with more education, and from richer households,
respectively.
• Rural residents are less likely than urban residents to know
about HIV prevention

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Data needed:
• Live births, place of delivery, delivery attendance
• Deaths and causes of death, abortions Disaggregation:
• Children ever born and children surviving • By sex, and generally
• Weight and height of persons, vaccinations received, by age as well
selected health conditions and treatments received
• Health expenditure of households Also important may be
• Pre natal care, contraceptive use
• small areas, and
• HIV/AIDS: prevalence, tests done, deaths, knowledge,
access to retroviral drugs, condom use • small population
• Health risk factors, e.g. alcohol, tobacco, obesity, groups
physical activity, high risk sexual behaviour
• Unintentional and occupational injuries
• Population by sex and age for calculation of rates

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statistics :
• Understanding gender gaps may require a distinction between
biological and social factors and how they may be entangled. Certain
measures and indicators (e.g. of child mortality or nutrition) may make
biological factors less relevant than social factors, or vice versa.
• Estimates of sex differentials in infant and child mortality rates based
on household surveys may have large standard errors and wide
confidence intervals.
 Information on quality of the available data should be provided to
users.

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statistics :
• Data on maternal mortality may be unreliable due to underreporting
and misclassifications of deaths. Estimates obtained from household
surveys have large standard errors and thus, wide confidence intervals.
 Where data on maternal mortality are suspected to be
inadequate, it is important to interpret the data within the context
of other maternal health indicators.

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statistics :
• Data on births and deaths from censuses or surveys, as well as from
civil registrations, may have coverage and accuracy deficiencies. For
example,
– Female births may be more severely underreported than male births in
countries where women have a lower status.
– Births and deaths may also be underreported due to premature death or
omissions as a result of proxy responses or recall errors.
 Data quality should be assessed using multiple sources. Users
should be informed about quality deficiencies.
 Adjustments may be needed for underreporting and for
distortions in the age structure.
 A data improvement strategy may be needed.

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statistics :
• Causes of death are often not reported, or misreported, for both
females and males in civil registration systems.
 Systematic and targeted efforts to improve reporting may be
needed.
• Reliable statistics on abortions may not be readily available.
 Research may be needed to improve estimation methods.
• Sex differentials in nutrition may be clearer if data on weight and

height of girls and boys under 5 are disaggregated also by age.

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statistics :
• HIV prevalence. Sex bias may occur in estimates based on population
surveys due to gender differences in participation in testing.
• Sexual behaviour. Sex bias in reporting may occur due to normative

reporting of sexual behaviour, e.g. condom use and high risk sex. Use
of contraceptive methods may be underreported.
 Data sources need to be reviewed, or existing methods adjusted.
• Alcohol consumption. Type and frequency of consumption may vary

by gender and surveys may not adequately distinguish relevant risk
behaviours.
 Survey questionnaires may need to be revised.

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1.4.3. Education

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1.4.3. Education

– Do women have lower literacy rates than men? What are the
trends? How are gender differences in adult literacy distributed
across geographic areas and population groups?
– Is the male rate of secondary school enrolment much different

to that of females? What impact does poverty have on female
and male enrolments?
– To what extent does school attendance vary between females

and males of differing ages?
– Are women under-represented among teaching staff? Have

patterns changed over time?

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1.4.3. Education
Statistics in Ethiopia show :

Advantage of boys over girls in basic education:
– The literacy rate for adults is 39% (2008-2012).
• Female literacy rate is lower than the male rate: 28.9% compared to
49.1%
• Literacy is higher in urban areas than in rural areas, and lowest
among the poorest.
– Girls’ net enrolment rates are lower than boys’ in both primary
and secondary school: 65% and 11% for girls compared to 71%
and 18% for boys
– Girls’ primary school completion rates for both primary and
secondary levels are lower than for boys

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1.4.3. Education

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1.4.3. Education

Advantage of boys over girls in basic education:
– The majority of teachers in primary education are men (63.3%),
and the pattern continues for secondary (75.7%), tertiary (90.6%),
where men are the large majority of teachers. (Government may
need to policies to correct this gender disparity, which may be
contributing to the lack of school participation of females across
all education tiers, and the low completion rates of females
compared to males).

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1.4.3. Education
Data needed:
• Number of students in primary, secondary and
tertiary education, e.g. enrolments, completions etc Disaggregation:
• School attendance and reasons for not attending
• By sex, and often by
• Tertiary education graduates
age as well
• Education expenditure of households
• Also important may
• Number of teachers and researchers
be level of education,
• Number of schools with particular facilities
field of study, small
• Literacy
areas, and small
• Highest level of education attained
population groups
• Participation in non-formal education and training
• Participation in continuing vocational training
• Use of information services (e.g. for farmers)
• Users of the internet, computers, mobile phones etc

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1.4.3. Education

statistics :
• Educational participation. Using only enrolment data may overstate
the educational participation of girls or boys to different degrees, since
they include persons enrolled in but not necessarily attending school.
 Both enrolment and attendance statistics need to be considered.
• Educational participation. Difference in statistics from education
ministry (using enrolment and age-specific projections of school-age
population) versus household survey data
 Reference periods and concepts would be different also
 Survey data would pertain to “current attendance” in school, while
education ministry data pertain to enrolment

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1.4.3. Education

statistics :
• Population groups. Some groups with distinct gender differences in
educational participation may not be covered in statistics on
enrolment or attendance, resulting in biased estimates.
 Excluded groups may be those outside the regular education
system in the case of administrative records; living in remote areas
or institutions in the case of household surveys; or studying
abroad.
 The magnitude of under-coverage should be assessed and users
should be informed of the implications for gender studies.
 Using a combination of sources (censuses, surveys, administrative
records) may improve coverage.

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1.4.3. Education

statistics :
• Literacy. Statistics based on self-reporting or proxy-reporting may
overestimate literacy rates, particularly for persons considered
dependent.
 Direct assessment can provide more objective measures.
 The most accurate measurement uses a direct test of 3 criteria to assess
the literacy and numeracy of female and male heads of households:
• Ability to read a simple written note
• Ability to write a simple letter
• Ability to do a written calculation
QUESTIONS: What method was used in the EDHS 2011? Are other methods,
e.g,, proxy-reporting, used to track literacy rates?

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1.4.4. Labor and Employment

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– Do females and males have different employment rates?
– Are there gender differences in types of employment (jobs)
across different population groups?
– Are paid hours worked similar for males and females?
– Do females spend more time on housework than males?
– Who works more hours, women or men?
Lack of data about many economic and employment statistics is

also an important gender issue—including on wages or earnings,
employment status and informal employment, unemployment,
underemployment

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– The female unemployment rate is slightly higher (22.6% latest
national estimate; 8.4% ILO estimate), than the male rate: (11.7%,
latest national estimate; 2.8% ILO estimate).
– Most women are employed in agriculture (74.8%), and many
men also are employed as small-scale farmers (83.2%).
– Only one in ten employed men have wage and salaried
jobs(9.3%); while about one in twenty employed women (6.2%)
have wage and salaried jobs.
– Labor force participation by females estimated by ILO at 78.2,
while that of males is 89.4%

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Data needed:
• Labour force participation Disaggregation:
• Employment, unemployment, underemployment • By sex, and often by
• Status in employment and informal employment age, occupation, and
• Number of hours worked industry of activity.
• Wages or earnings from work • Also important may be
• Ownership and management of agricultural resources, small areas, and small
use of agricultural inputs population groups.
• Time use by type of activity
• Access to and use of flexible working arrangements
• Availability and use of formal childcare services
• Maternity and paternity leave benefits
• Children in employment and in unpaid housework

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statistics :
• Labour force participation and employment. Women’s participation
in labour force and employment may be underreported due to:
• difficulty in separating activities that should or should not be
included;
• gender-based stereotypes of women and their work roles;
• difficulty of capturing seasonal and intermittent activity; and
• various coverage limitations when data are sourced from business
surveys.
 Collection methods and training may need to be improved. An
alternative data source may need to be considered.

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statistics :
• Unemployment. Women’s unemployment may be underreported
because:
• they may be perceived or define themselves as not seeking work;
• they are more likely to be discouraged or to be seasonal workers;
• There may be coverage limitations when data come from
administrative records.
 Collection methods and training may need to be improved. An
alternative data source may need to be considered.

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statistics :
• Occupation and status in employment.
• Often not recorded with enough detail to properly assess gender
differences in types of work and employment conditions.
• Women’s employment status may be misclassified in employment
categories due to misclassification of jobs.
 Collection methods and training may need to be improved.

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statistics :
• Gender pay gap. May be higher or lower depending on the concept
used—for example,
• wages of paid employees,
• earnings of paid employees including overtime and regular bonuses, or
• income related to employment of all workers, including all bonuses and
social security benefits.
 Users should be informed of the particular concept used: various
concepts may be useful.

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statistics :
• Small agricultural holdings. Excluding small holdings from agricultural
censuses and surveys induces a gender bias in the statistics as women
holders tend to concentrate in this sub-sector.
 The extent of the bias should be quantified and users informed.
• Productive agricultural resources. Comprehensive coverage of gender

issues in access to productive resources in agriculture requires:
 Use of data collection units and data analysis more disaggregated
than the holding level.

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statistics :
• Head of agricultural holdings. Many agricultural holdings classified as
‘male-headed’ may in fact be headed jointly by women and men, and
incorrectly recorded due to omissions and interviewers and/or
respondents’ gender bias.
 Interviewer training and/or respondent instructions may need
improvement.
• Work on own account production of services.
• Not usually covered by conventional labour force statistics, which are
limited to activities that contribute to the production of goods and
services as defined by the SNA.
• In particular, own account production of services, which is mostly carried
out by women, is excluded.

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statistics :
 Time use statistics can shed light on both the included and
excluded activities performed by women and men, such as
• Getting fuel, water or forage,
• preparing meals, cleaning and other housework,
• caring for children and others in the household,
• directly-provided volunteer services, and
• working without pay on own-account or family farms or businesses.
 In particular, time use statistics can provide measures of unpaid
housework undertaken by women and men, provided that
• contextual information is collected--e.g. whether the work was paid or
unpaid and for whom it was performed, and
• simultaneous activities are recorded.

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1.5. Summary: Measurement
• Understand the issue
- impact on identifying gender gap or not? (every data
source has limitations)
- incomplete coverage? sex bias in questions? proxy
respondents? non-response?
- inadequately-trained interviewers? data coding, data
entry or editing errors?
• Improve future data collection activities
• Adjust the estimates
- imputation? benchmarking?

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1.5. Summary: Measurement
• Use multiple data sources?
- confront the data?
- combine the data?
• Use different methods
• Communicate with data users
- ensure users understand the quality of the
data, including possible gender biases
- provide reliability measures, e.g. statistical
significance, confidence intervals

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Exercise 1
1. How well does the CSA cover the main areas of
gender statistics? What key areas are missing or
missing indicators? What are the key gaps?
2. Based on your experience as data producer or
user, what recommendations would you propose
to fill the gaps not covered in the CSA?
3. What would you do--in general and in your own
work--to improve the data and statistics on
gender?

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Exercise 1
4. How would you go about identifying the
priorities in gender statistics in Ethiopia? Please
give specific examples
5. Prepare a table-using the table shell provided--
showing gender issues, data needed and sources
of data for the topic of educational participation.
6. What gender issues in Ethiopia are most in need
of better data? What improvements to data
sources or methods would be required?

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Exercise 1.4: Prepare a table - using the mock-up provided - showing
gender issues, data needed and sources of data for the topic of
educational participation.
Educational Participation
Gender issues Data needed Sources of Data
EXAMPLE
Do the same proportions of girls New entrants in first grade of School administrative records,
and boys enter the first grade of school by sex and age, and combined with data from
school? population by sex and age population census and (specify)
household surveys

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2. Data Collection
• Various Planning
stages
– Each Design
stage
is Instruments
shown
in the
next Collection of data
few
slides Processing of data

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2.1. Planning
• The objectives need to identify and reflect the
gender topics and policy issues to be addressed by
the collection.
 Objectives are typically determined following
consultations between data producers and data users.
 Include analysts and statisticians with a gender focus in
such consultations.

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2.1. Planning
• Because the objectives usually take account of
findings from reviews of previous data collections in
the same program, a gender perspective should be
incorporated in such reviews.
 Analysis of surveys from previous census round can show,
̶ whether there was sex-selective underreporting of
some characteristics
̶ whether errors were due to poorly phrased questions
or instructions, proxy response, sex of the interviewers,
shortcomings in interviewers’ qualifications or to
coding or data entry mistakes

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2.1. Planning
• User groups and advisory committees can provide
valuable input when planning and developing
collections.
 Include stakeholders concerned with gender issues among
their members.

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2.2. Sampling Design
Sampling designs should:
 Cover all groups of population or economic units known
to have distinct gender patterns; for example,
 Agricultural censuses and surveys should include small holdings
which are typically owned and worked by women
 Ensure that reliable statistics can be produced for both
females and males in sufficient detail,
 Allow disaggregation by other characteristics as required
by meaningful gender analysis

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2.2. Sampling Design
Sampling designs should:
 Consider data disaggregation thatreveal gender-based
inequalities in household or holdings.
 For example, sex-disaggregated data on property ownership can
be collected at the individual level, while data on decision-
making in agricultural activities can be collected at sub-holding
level, for plots of land and types of livestock.
 The sample size should take account of gender statistics
needs.
For example, the sample size of a survey measuring status in employment should be
large enough to allow data to be analysed separately for female and male employers
or other categories of self-employed, and further disaggregated by age group,
rural/urban areas and educational attainment.

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2.3. Instruments
 Gender issues and gender-specific conceptual and
measurement issues should be taken into account
in
– design of collection questionnaires and formulation of
questions
– preparation of collection manuals preparation, and
– training of interviewers and supervisors
 Questionnaires should be field-tested to ensure
both women and men understand the questions
in the same way and to detect any potential
gender bias in reporting.
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2.3. Instruments
 Collection manuals’ preparation should:
 Include detailed information about each question, and
 instructions and procedures to be followed when using
the questionnaire
 Use general language free of gender biases or other
stereotypes related to the characteristics measured
 Use examples that do not reinforce gender stereotypes

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2.4. Data Collection
 Field staff should be selected on the basis of
competence, with both women and men recruited.
 Training of interviewers and supervisors should
equip them with skills needed to handle gender-
related issues likely to be encountered in field.
 Training should address:
gender-related measurement issues and gender
stereotypes;
gender concerns associated with topics in the
collection; and
how data collected will address those concerns.

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2.4. Data Collection
 Certain types of surveys may require more careful
selection and more extensive training of
interviewers.
 Sex of interviewer can play an important part in
obtaining certain types of sensitive information
from respondents.
 Women may be more likely to disclose information on
reproductive health to women interviewers than men
interviewers.

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2.5. Data Processing
 It is important to avoid gender bias in data coding
and data editing, including imputations for non-
response and misreporting.
 Subject matter specialists with training in gender

issues should be involved in formulating rules for
these processes so that the coders or processing
assumptions are not based on gender
stereotypes.

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3. Bringing Gender Perspective into
Data Collection
• Many data sources are used by countries to
produce gender statistics. The main types are:
– Population and housing censuses
– Population sample surveys
– Business censuses and surveys
– Administrative records
• To construct some gender indicators, data from
more than one source may need to be combined.

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3. Bringing Gender Perspective into
Data Collection
• Some data sources provide more sex-disaggregated
or gender-relevant data than others—e.g.,
demographic and health, or education, surveys.
• However, most data sources could improve the
collection, coverage and quality of gender statistics
by integrating a gender perspective in their
planning, design, development and data collection.

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3.1. Quality of Data Sources
• The quality of gender-relevant data from each
source depends on many factors, including:
–concepts, definitions and classifications used
–collection design and coverage
–the way questions are asked
–the collection methods used
• Gender bias can be present in any data collection
and arise at any stage of statistical production
process.
• Important to understand value and limitations of
particular sources available in a country
78
3.1.1. Assessing Existing Data Sources
Some questions:
• How adequate are the existing sources for gender
statistics purposes?
• What are the main gaps or deficiencies in covering gender
differences , and what action is being taken to address
them?
• Are metadata provided for all statistics, including
information on data quality? Where can it be found?

79
Some questions (cont’d):

• Are the statistics consistent with international standards?
Are there any notable departures that would affect
international comparability?
• What are the main conceptual and measurement issues
associated with existing sources? How have they been
addressed? Does more need to be done?

80
Some questions (cont’d):

• What improvements to data sources (including potential
sources) are most needed from a gender perspective? Are
there any plans to make these improvements?
• Are there any other developments expected to improve
the quality and availability of gender statistics?

81
3.2. Popn and Housing Censuses
• Population censuses are typically the largest statistical
collections undertaken by a country and are conducted
relatively infrequently (e.g., every 10 years).
• They obtain data on each person in the population,
including their sex, age and other characteristics.
• Generally a range of other topics are also covered. For
example:
– female and male labour force participation;
– current occupation;
– paid and unpaid work;
– income;
– educational participation and attainment;
– aspects of health and disability;
– living arrangements.

82
• They provide:
– a rich source of information for examining differences between
females and males across many dimensions of life and in fine
geographical detail.
– information for studying families, households and population sub-
groups from a gender perspective.
– population benchmarks for constructing indicators and other
analytic measures for studying gender issues.

83
• Primary source of benchmark gender statistics on
various topics, both for the whole population and
for specific population groups.
• Reliable, and sometimes the only, source of

statistics on small geographic areas and small
population groups disaggregated by various
characteristics required for gender analysis.

84
• Source of data for population denominators
needed to calculate various gender indicators
based on data provided by administrative records.
• Where civil registration systems have incomplete

coverage, census data along with household
surveys data are vital for providing gender
statistics on fertility, mortality, marriages and
migration.

85
3.3. Household Surveys
• Household and other population surveys collect

information directly from a representative sample
of households or individuals.
• They can cover a very wide range of topics in
depth.
• Data collected invariably includes sex and age of
each individual in the sample.

86
• Such surveys are very flexible and may have:

• a multipurpose focus, with many discrete topics
• a more general social focus, with a range of topics for
analysis of cross-cutting issues
• a primary focus on a particular topic or population group
(e.g. labour force, education, literacy, health, disability,
time use, domestic violence, migrants)
• attached sessions on separate topics (e.g. sessions on
discrete topics may be attached to regular labour force
surveys)

87
• The implications of sampling error (as well as non-

sampling error) need to be considered when using
data from these surveys to produce gender
statistics. In Ethiopia, the following surveys collect
sex-disaggregated and gender-relevant data:
• DHS
• ERHS
• LFS
• Which other surveys collect gender-relevant
data?
88
• Note in particular that labor force survey (LFS) provide data
on the structure and composition of the labour force,
disaggregated by sex, age group and other individual
characteristics.
• This information is essential for design and evaluation of government
policies aimed at employment creation and equal opportunity in
employment.
• LFS can provide data on employment and unemployment

trends for particular sub-groups, which are crucial for
assessing the social affects of government employment
policies or structural adjustment policies.

89
• Labour force data can be collected at the same time as
data on other topics. The combined information can be
useful for understanding gender differences in labour force
participation.
• Recurrent surveys can show the extent to which seasonal

variations in labour force participation differ between
women and men

90
3.4. Establishment censuses/surveys
• These collections obtain data from businesses and

other organisations, as well as from the registers
on which the collections are based.
• The focus of the collections may be:

̶ particular industries or activities (e.g., manufacturing,
agriculture, education services), or
̶ economy-wide

91
3.4. Establishment censuses/surveys
• They can provide gender-relevant information if

sex-disaggregated data are collected for individuals
associated with the organisation. For example:
̶ earnings of different categories of employees;
̶ characteristics of owners or managers of businesses and
agricultural holdings, including type, size and location;
̶ numbers of students and staff in different fields at
educational and research institutions.
Which other surveys (done by ministries of labor, trade?)
collect gender-relevant data?

92
3.5. Agricultural censuses/surveys
• Agricultural censuses cover all agricultural

holdings. They collect structural and operational
data related to each holding.
• Agricultural surveys (a type of business survey)

cover only a sample of agricultural holdings. They
are usually conducted more often than censuses
and can accommodate more detailed questions.

93
• The role of these collections in obtaining statistics

on gender and agriculture should be considered
within an integrated system of producing gender
statistics.
Examples of topics they can cover :
• size of holding • production
• ownership • income
• management • employment
• economic activity • agricultural practices
Does CSA or ministry of agriculture conduct agricultural

surveys ? Are there gender-relevant data?
94
• Note that agricultural data can be improved.

Information on the composition and organisation
of farm labour can be provided by recording sex
and other characteristics of the household
members and hired labourers working in
agricultural holding.
– Gender differences in management of agricultural
holdings can be provided by obtaining data on the
characteristics of holders and sub-holders and
combining the data with other information, such as size
and types of crops or livestock.
95
Agricultural censuses and surveys are important for gender
statistics:
• They can identify gender differences in
– ownership of agricultural assets,
– access to agricultural services and credit, and
– access and use of agricultural practices.
• For Ethiopia, where a large majority of employed work in
vulnerable employment, agricultural censuses and surveys can
reveal much about economic roles of mena and women, and
their time use and unpaid work (which contributes to their
household’s wellbeing)

96
3.6. Administrative Records
• These records contain data routinely collected through
administrative processes by sectoral or line ministries and
other national and local public entities.
• Where records hold information on individuals, including
their sex, they can be a valuable and cost effective source of
gender statistics.
• A wide range of topics may be covered.
– For example: school enrolments; registered unemployed;
registered births, deaths and marriages; registered diseases; use of
health services; provision of income support; arrests for criminal
activity.

97
3.6. Administrative Records
• They have the potential to provide more frequent, reliable
and finely disaggregated data than sample surveys, and to
provide insights into gender issues not well covered by
census or survey data.
• But, their usefulness may be limited since their primary
focus is administration not statistics. Problems:
– Their coverage, completeness of records, definitions,
classifications and collection methods may be deficient for
purposes of gender statistics, and
– The details they hold may not be current.
Give examples of administrative data in Ethiopia with

gender data
98
Exercise 2
1. Choose a census or survey that you are familiar with
from the list in Handout 2.1:
– Does it collect sex-disaggregated or gender-relevant statistics?
What are they?
– Which steps or activities could have been taken to better
integrate a gender perspective and minimize gender problems or
biases?
2. To what extent is a gender perspective integrated in the
production of statistics in Ethiopia? What is working well
in this regard, and what needs more attention?
– Please give specific examples of data collection
instruments or processes that integrate a gender
perspective
99
Exercise 2
3. What data collection census or survey, or administrative
reporting system in Ethiopia has the highest priority for
improvement from a gender perspective? Why? What
needs to be done and by whom to improve it?

100
101

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Technical Workshop on Gender Statistics

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 3-6 Nov 2014

The Production of Gender Statistics

Dr. Jose Ramon “Toots” G. Albert

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

– be obtained from sources where the collection

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

Identify data needed

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

• National priorities for gender statistics

Some examples of priorities were:

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

• There are gender issues, data needs and

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

A few questions relevant to Ethiopia ....

What do the statistics show???

• Sixty-three percent of women in Ethiopia are married by age 18,

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

What do the statistics show???

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

Conceptual and Measurement Issues in producing gender

Conceptual and Measurement Issues in producing gender

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

Conceptual and Measurement Issues in producing gender

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

A few questions relevant to Ethiopia ....

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

Statistics in Ethiopia from EDHS 2011 show that :

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

Statistics in Ethiopia from EDHS 2011 show that :

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

Statistics in Ethiopia from EDHS 2011 show that :

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

Statistics in Ethiopia from EDHS 2011 show that :

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

Statistics in Ethiopia from EDHS 2011 show that :

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

Statistics in Ethiopia from EDHS 2011 show that :

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

Conceptual and Measurement Issues in producing gender

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

Conceptual and Measurement Issues in producing gender

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

Conceptual and Measurement Issues in producing gender

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

Conceptual and Measurement Issues in producing gender

• Sex differentials in nutrition may be clearer if data on weight and

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

Conceptual and Measurement Issues in producing gender

• Sexual behaviour. Sex bias in reporting may occur due to normative

• Alcohol consumption. Type and frequency of consumption may vary

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014

2. Production of Gender Statistics Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 3-6 Nov 2014