Gender inequality is an age-old issue that is well-known, but perhaps variedly understood by different populations. As a person of color and an immigrant, my experience on the topic certainly differs from peers of different races and cultural backgrounds. Therefore, my objective with this piece is to walk through my journey and see how far we’ve come globally in addressing gender inequalities around the world. My overarching goal is to reflect on my life experiences and highlight gender and resource inequalities that may have affected me at the time. In particular, I want to look at global gender inequalities and resource allocation in relation to
- Access to health care
- Freedom of movement
- Education
- Employment
- Job security
Childhood
How has access to health care during (and at) birth changed over the years?
I was born in Cameroon – a lower middle-income nation in West Africa, in the late 90s. At the time, although access to maternal health was highly prevalent in high-income nations (e.g., Austria), it often came at a hefty price in their low-income counterparts. Furthermore, the data collected suggests that this access varied by region, with less than 1 in 3 women in some African and Asian nations having access to skilled health staff during childbirth. In the mid 2010s, access to maternal health care seems to have increased in low-income nations. Nevertheless, the lack of data in these regions makes it difficult to quantify the accuracy of this observation today.
My life expectancy at birth was 51 years compared to 47 years for my male counterparts. Over the years, the average life expectancy in West African regions has increased but a 4- to 5-year gap remains between male and female infants. The life expectancy gap exists in other parts of the world is also 3 to 4 years.
As a girl, how likely was I to attend primary school based on where I was born and my parent’s income?
My parents, a university professor and an entrepreneur, saw value in female education. Thus, I became part of the 94% of girls from high income homes enrolled in one of the best schools at the time. Although gender disparities did not exist in my income group, notable gaps in female-to-male enrolment existed in low and lower middle-income groups. At the time (1999 – early 2000s), 1 in 2 female infants had the opportunity of attending primary school, compared to 4 of 5 male infants. Today, while gender inequalities have reduced across all income groups – with the female-to-male enrolment ratio ~ 1, inequalities still remain across various income groups. Particularly, low and lower middle-income groups have net school enrolment of 80 – 85% regardless of gender, while higher income groups have net school enrolment above 95%.
Teenage years
Freedom of movement – how difficult is it for women to travel the world compared to men?
I immigrated to Canada with my mum in 2011, leading me to wonder how challenging it was for her as a woman to travel for greener pastures (or just pleasure). The survey plot presented suggests that women are generally free to travel to other nations in a similar manner as their male counterparts. Notable exceptions to this are war-affected nations like Sudan and Gaza, and Islamic nations like the Syrian Arab Republic and Qatar. A quick comparison between 2011 and 2020 landscape shows that travel inequalities have not changed in the past 10 years. This may be due to on-going conflicts and hard-set cultural and religious practices.
Choosing a career: Visualizing gender disparities across various industries
We immigrated to Canada just before I began high school, the time when you have to choose who you want to be when you grow up. I was 100% certain I wanted to be a doctor (though I wavered on what kind), but some of my peers spent their entire high school journey (and part of university too) deciding which path they wanted to follow. To understand the gender inequalities surrounding this issue, I investigated student populations, their desire to pursue STEM careers and distribution in different industries around the globe.
Early Adulthood
My main concern as a fresh graduate and young adult was getting a job, as it would provide me access to financial and material stability. I entered the workforce 2 years ago (2022), after graduating from a master’s program and I gained this job through networking and a period of full-time job searching (overall subjective effort = 8/10).
Would my job search have been easier if I were a male graduate?
According to the data collected, the simple answer is yes, but it depends on where you live. For instance, in Canada, women and men have equal opportunities to apply for jobs and legislations exist to mandate equal pay for work of equal value regardless of gender. On the other hand, in some nations like Armenia, while women may be able to get jobs like men, they may not be compensated equally by law.
Adjacent issues I have considered are a woman’s safety in the workplace. Particularly, I explored the ideas of job security especially during pregnancy and protection against sexual harassment. The data suggests that, over the past 20 years, there has been an increase in female-friendly safety measures within the workplace. Specifically, we observe increasing number of nations with legislations in place that ensure job security and protection against workplace sexual harassment.
Summary
My goal with this data story was to provide insights into gender inequality from the perspective of my journey through life. From the reflections, I gladly conclude that I have been blessed not to have been severely affected by gender disparities. This is in part due to my parents’ socio-economic status and the nation in which I reside. However, taking on a global view of the potential areas of disparity highlighted the existence of gender inequality, especially pertaining to access to education and aspirations towards STEM careers. Fortunately, these analyses suggest that hope still remains in bridging gender-based gaps, as positive shifts have been observed in recent years and more legislations are being put in place in favor of the female gender.
Data Source, Availability and Validation
The data presented in this story was collected from the World Bank Gender Data Portal2 and the specific indicators analyzed can be found in Table 1.
Table 1. Indicators from the World Bank Gender Database analyzed in this project
| Topic | Indicators |
|---|---|
| Children 0-14 | Life expectancy at birth (years) Adjusted net enrollment rate, primary (% of primary school age children) |
| Health | Births attended by skilled health staff (% of total) |
| Youth | Share of graduate students by field, females (%) |
| Employment & time use | A woman can get a job in the same way as a man (1=yes; 0=no) Law mandates equal remuneration for females and males for work of equal value (1=yes; 0=no) Law prohibits discrimination in employment based on gender (1=yes; 0=no) |
| Norms & decision-making | A woman can apply for a passport in the same way as a man (1=yes; 0=no) |
Supplementary data, which included region and income group classifications according to the World Bank were collected from Our World in Data.3,4
The data on STEM career aspirations was pulled from the 2023 Sustainable Development Goals Report published by the World Bank.5
A note on data availability
The database from which the data was collected contains 60 years of gender-related data from all countries and regions in the world. However, the reporting frequency varies from one nation to another (e.g. annually vs. every other year) and some indicators are not recorded in some regions, resulting in gaps in data availability. To address this issue, I collected at least 10 years of data per indicator and summarized (average: numerical variables, mode: categorical variables) as necessary to build accurate visualizations. More information on data availability of each indicator is outline on the Gender Database site.6
Tools
Microsoft Excel was used for data cleaning (null value replacements), the creation of pivot tables for analysis and data transformations for specific plot types.
All visualizations were made in Flourish,7 a data visualization and storytelling tool that allows the user to create interactive charts without the coding requirements.
References
UNICEF. Mapping gender equality in STEM from school to work (2020). URL: https://www.unicef.org/globalinsight/stories/mapping-gender-equality-stem-school-work
The World Bank – Gender Data Portal (2024). URL: https://genderdata.worldbank.org/, accessed: February 9, 2024
Our World in Data. World Regions According to the World Bank (2017). URL: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/world-regions-according-to-the-world-bank, accessed: February 9, 2024
Our World in Data. World Bank Income Groups (2021). URL: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/world-banks-income-groups, accessed: February 9, 2024
The World Bank. Sustainable Development Goals Report (2023). URL: https://datatopics.worldbank.org/sdgatlas/, accessed: February 9, 2024
The World Bank. Gender Data Availability. URL: https://genderdata.worldbank.org/data-availability/?tab=availability, accessed: February 9, 2024
Flourish – Data Visualization and Storytelling (2024). URL: https://flourish.studio/, accessed: February 9, 2024