Definition: A composite measure reflecting inequality in achievement between women and men in three dimensions: reproductive health, empowerment, and the labour market.

See Technical note 4 at here for details on how the Gender Inequality Index is calculated.

The GDI measures gender gaps in human development achievements by accounting for disparities between women and men in three basic dimensions of human development—health, knowledge and living standards using the same component indicators as in the HDI. The GDI is the ratio of the HDIs calculated separately for females and males using the same methodology as in the HDI. It is a direct measure of gender gap showing the female HDI as a percentage of the male HDI.

The GDI shows how much women are lagging behind their male counterparts and how much women need to catch up within each dimension of human development. It is useful for understanding the real gender gap in human development achievements and is informative to design policy tools to close the gap.