Targeted policymaking requires detailed knowledge about the effects of policy interventions. Data provide this knowledge for evidence-informed policymaking as they shed light on social, economic and structural inequalities. Missing data weaken the effectiveness of policies and result in real-world consequences that can disproportionately affect women and girls.
According to UN Women, at the current rate, closing the gender data gap for the Sustainable Development Goals could take as long as 22 years. Against this backdrop, the FEMETRICS project, part of the EUI Widening Europe Programme, focuses on gender data gaps by evaluating official statistics at both national and supranational levels, and by analysing access to such data, including questions of data governance, policies, and legal frameworks.
In this interview, we speak with Gaby Umbach, Petra Krylova, Mira Tiwari, and Alicja Wejdner, key contributors to the project’s mission.
What domains are affected by sex- and/or gender-disaggregated data (S/GDD) (or lack thereof)?
Petra Krylova, Global Research Director at Social Progress Imperative and Researcher at FEMETRICS: There is extensive evidence that all aspects of women’s lives are affected by the lack of appropriate information and relevant data –from car safety to medicine prescriptions and snow ploughing. Even when indicators are sex-disaggregated, they often reflect male realities by default. Furthermore, progress on equality cannot depend exclusively on sex disaggregation, as not all aspects of life can be measured in comparison to men – we must also identify and collect data that help us to understand women’s and girls’ realities in their own right.
Our research shows that certain domains, such as health, education, and the economy generally have better availability of sex-disaggregated data than other areas. However, this doesn’t mean we have all the necessary information about the situation of women and girls –only that these fields have better data collection and reporting procedures compared to areas like digital access, clean environment, or the ability to exercise rights and freedoms. While not ideal, these areas show that adequate systems for sex disaggregation are possible and can be applied in other areas.
What are the challenges that lead to the lack of sex- and/or gender-disaggregated data?
Gaby Umbach, EUI Part-time Professor and FEMETRICS Principal Investigator: Collecting disaggregated data is a demanding task for official data providers. It requires extensive investment in human resources and data governance. Achieving such a change requires a strategic prioritisation of new data collection practices and a shift in policy-making attention to the structural monitoring of gender-related issues. This is not an easy task amid the current politicisation of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
Mainstreaming the gender perspective in politics helps to establish a robust mandate for national statistical offices to identify new indicators, data sources and collection methods. Such transformation requires budgetary prioritisation, i.e., governments’ decisions to invest in national statistical offices’ capacity to conceptualise gender data, collect them, monitor progress over time, exchange data across institutional boundaries and national borders, and disseminate data more broadly to the public.
We analysed such institutionalised roots of data collection at the global and EU levels. Results indicate a lack of data collection to holistically assess gender dimensions. Social policies remain informed by traditional sex-disaggregated indicators. Data comparisons predominantly adopt a binary perspective on the two biological sexes, which only offers a relative (‘how do women fair compared to men in a particular area?’) instead of an absolute (‘how do women progress overall in society?’) perspective. Moreover, gender statistics are largely missing, despite their necessity for targeted interventions to improve lives.
Which widening countries are you collaborating with? How is the research structured?
Mira Manini Tiwari, Research Associate at the Robert Schuman Centre and Researcher at FEMETRICS: We are very pleased to have a core FEMETRICS team with two of three principal investigators bringing their expertise from the Czech Republic and Poland. Among the presenters at the 2024 FEMETRICS Lab, we had researchers from Greece, Malta, Poland, and Romania, sharing work on perinatal violence and gynaecological cancer, the motherhood penalty, political participation, equal pay, and the gender compositions of boards.
Our research involved three principal strands. The first analysed the extent and nature of sex- and/or gender-disaggregated data at the UN and EU levels, including examining all sustainable development goals (SDGs) and comparing the global and regional data landscapes. Secondly, we surveyed national statistical offices in EU Member States (Widening and non-Widening), later including civil society, to better understand how such data are perceived, produced, and used. Third, we conducted interviews with statistical actors in Poland to create a focused case study linking the first two strands.
The research from the FEMETRICS network and in sustainable development overall highlights the importance of localised insight into data, alongside the development of global indices: understandings of intersections in lived gender realities, of what measures are valuable for specific communities, and how the community is involved. This year we are gathering scholars engaged in gender and sustainable development research at the EUI and in the FEMETRICS network to stocktake and develop an integrated strategy for collaboration in research and policy.
What are your learnings and takeaways from the FEMETRICS Lab?
Alicja Wejdner, Ph.D. candidate at SGH Warsaw School of Economics, and Participant at the FEMETRICS Lab: One key lesson is the critical importance of having reliable, comprehensive data to inform evidence-based policymaking, especially in the context of gender equality. The lack of high-quality S/GDD significantly limits our ability to understand the true scope of gender disparities and to develop targeted policies. This gap in data is evident within the European Union, where the collection of such data is inconsistent across member states.
The preliminary results from the FEMETRICS survey suggest that only a portion of EU national statistical offices systematically collect sex-disaggregated data, and even fewer collect gender-disaggregated data, highlighting the uneven commitment and capacity to gather such data across Europe. The scarcity of data further complicates the development of policies that can address the specific needs and challenges women face, particularly in less-represented areas.
I found the analytical potential of datasets like the Gender Board Diversity Dataset (GBDD) particularly valuable, as it offers a long-term view of gender representation in corporate boards across Europe. This type of dataset not only tracks progress but also shows the areas where further interventions are necessary. I remain strongly committed to supporting the advancement of sex- and gender-disaggregated data collection and to advocating for its more systematic and consistent incorporation into policy development processes. The FEMETRICS network has strengthened my belief in the necessity of establishing stronger data pathways to address gaps in gender analysis and promote effective, data-driven policy reforms.
The FEMETRICS project is funded by the EUI Widening Europe Programme. With contributions from the European Union and EUI Contracting States, the programme is designed to strengthen internationalisation, competitiveness, and quality in research in targeted Widening countries, and thus foster more cohesive European Higher Education and Research Areas.