Studying the role of human development in reducing the gender Inequalities among the UN Member States

Abstract

Today, the development indices provided by the United Nations are considered as the major criteria in determining the position of the different countries of the world. Human Development Index, despite resolving its shortcomings, is again unable to offer a correct picture of the situation of the inhabitants of the world in terms of the inequalities between men and women. Whether this inability is true about all countries? This study seeks to answer this question and determine the role of components of the Human Development Index in declining the Gender Inequality Index. To do this, all UN member states (186 countries) in a four-year period (2010-2013), being divided into four groups of countries with very high human development, countries with high human development, countries with medium human development, and countries with low human development, were studied. The data wereanalyzed through secondary analysis method. The results showed that Human Development Index is associated with the Gender Inequality Index in different groups. The Human Development Index is not able to explain the gender inequality in countries with high human development. Its explanatory power is also low in countries with average development. Generally, we can say that human development components have considerable explanatory power only in countries with very high and low human development. Therefore, studying the relationship between these two indices is possible in the social, cultural, economic and political structures of societies.

Keywords

• human development
• gender inequality
• long and healthy life
• accessibility to knowledge