Mainstreaming a gender perspective into official statistics

Abstract

Grounded in global commitments such as the Beijing Platform for Action and the Sustainable Development Goals, the article highlights the importance of gender statistics in shaping evidence-based policymaking. It emphasizes the necessity of mainstreaming gender perspective into statistical production to generate data that accurately captures the persistence and magnitude of social inequalities. The article underscores the pivotal role of the UN Statistical Commission in driving efforts to integrate a gender perspective into statistical production, ensuring inclusivity and reflection of women's and men's realities. The authors provide actionable guidance for fostering an enabling institutional environment and embedding gender considerations into the eight phases of statistical production. By offering concrete recommendations and showcasing case studies from national statistical offices, it highlights their experiences, challenges, and best practices in integrating a gender perspective into statistical production. Select thematic areas where notable progress has been made in the last decade, in terms of higher availability and quality of data, including statistics on violence against women, and statistics on time-use and satellite accounts on unpaid work. The landscape for data sources of gender statistics has significantly diversified, which has enabled strides into traditionally untapped areas, such as entrepreneurship and the environment. Key findings highlight the importance of engaging various stakeholders and fostering communities around gender data systems to drive progress.