The ratio of literate women to men 15–24 years old (Literacy Gender Parity Index) is the ratio of the female literacy rate to the male literacy rate for the age group 15–24.
Goal 3. Promote gender equality and empower women.
Target 4. Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005 and in all levels of education no later than 2015.
The indicator measures progress towards gender equity in literacy and learning opportunities for women in relation to those for men. It also measures a presumed outcome of attending school and a key indicator of empowerment of women in society. Literacy is a fundamental skill to empower women to take control of their lives, to engage directly with authority and to gain access to the wider world of learning.
The indicator is derived by dividing the literacy rate of women ages 15–24 by the literacy rate of men ages 15–24.
Literacy data may be derived from population censuses, household surveys and literacy surveys. However, not all censuses or surveys include specific questions for assessing literacy. In some countries where literacy questions are not included, a person’s educational attainment (years of schooling completed) is used to assess literacy status. A common practice is to consider those with no schooling as illiterate and defining those who have attended grade 5 of primary school as literate.
Many household surveys, including the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, Demographic and Health Surveys, Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire Surveys in Africa and Living Standards Measurement Surveys collect literacy data, which can provide complementary data for countries without a recent census. However, definitions are not necessarily standardized (see “Comments and limitations”).
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Institute for Statistics www.uis.unesco.org.
The State of the World’s Children, annual, United Nations Children’s Fund (www.unicef.org/publications).
World Development Indicators, annual, World Bank (www.worldbank.org/data).
Education for All: Year 2000 Assessment, “Technical Guidelines”, 1998, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (www.unescobkk.org/infores/efa2000/tech2.htm).
Human Development Report, annual, United Nations Development Programme (www.undp.org).
Since population censuses normally occur every 10 years, input from more frequently administered labour force, household and other surveys are used for annual estimates. Household surveys are generally conducted every three to five years in most developing countries.
Higher illiteracy rates for women are the result of lower school enrolment and early drop-outs. Moreover, because women generally have less access to information and training and literacy programmes, estimates based on enrolments may overestimate literacy for girls.
International data comparisons
The main source of international data is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s international data series of annual and projected estimates based on information from national population censuses and labour force, household and other surveys. These estimates are available for some 130 countries.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Institute for Statistics www.uis.unesco.org.
The State of the World’s Children, annual, United Nations Children’s Fund (www.unicef.org/publications).
World Development Indicators, annual, World Bank (www.worldbank.org/data).
Education for All: Year 2000 Assessment, “Technical Guidelines”, 1998, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (www.unescobkk.org/infores/efa2000/tech2.htm).
Human Development Report, annual, United Nations Development Programme (www.undp.org).
Measurements of literacy can vary from simply asking “Are you literate or not?” to testing to assess literacy skills. In some cases, literacy is measured crudely in population censuses, either through self-declaration or by assuming that people with no schooling are illiterate. This causes difficulty for international comparisons. Comparability over time, even for the same survey, may also be a problem because definitions of literacy used in the surveys are not standardized. The latest UN Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses advises countries against adopting a proxy measurement based on educational attainment. It recommends that literacy questions be administered as part of national censuses and household surveys or as part of a post-census sample enumeration.
Shortcomings in the definition of literacy, measurement problems and infrequency of censuses and literacy surveys weaken this indicator as a means of monitoring education outcomes related to the goal of achieving universal primary education.
Ministries of education.
National statistical offices.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Institute for Statistics.