Gender inequality doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s woven into the fabric of our societies through laws, customs, and everyday practices that limit what women and girls can do, own, and become. While many gender indicators track outcomes like employment rates or education levels, they don’t always capture the root causes. That’s where the Social Institutions and Gender Index comes in.
Table of Contents
- What is the Social Institutions and Gender Index?
- The four dimensions that shape women’s lives
- Discrimination in the family
- Restricted physical integrity
- Restricted access to productive and financial resources
- Restricted civil liberties
- Why SIGI matters for policy and development
- From measurement to action
What is the Social Institutions and Gender Index?
The Social Institutions and Gender Index is a measurement tool developed by the OECD Development Centre that goes beyond surface-level statistics. Instead of just counting how many women are in parliament or how many girls attend school, SIGI examines the underlying drivers of gender inequality across 179 countries.
What makes SIGI unique is its focus on social institutions. These are the formal and informal laws, social norms, and customary practices that shape women’s roles in society. Think of discriminatory inheritance laws, restrictions on women’s freedom of movement, or social norms that prioritize sons over daughters. These institutional barriers often operate invisibly, creating what researchers call the “hidden part of the iceberg” when it comes to gender inequality.
SIGI uses a scoring system where zero indicates no discrimination and 100 represents complete discrimination. The lower a country’s score, the less institutional discrimination women face. According to recent data, 40% of women and girls globally live in countries with high or very high levels of discrimination in social institutions.
The four dimensions that shape women’s lives
SIGI organizes its assessment into four major dimensions that capture different aspects of institutional discrimination throughout a woman’s life.
Discrimination in the family
This dimension examines power dynamics within households. Do women have equal decision-making authority at home? Can they inherit property on the same terms as men? Are they free to marry or divorce on equal footing? Family-level discrimination creates fundamental inequalities that ripple through every other aspect of women’s lives. Research shows that discrimination remains highest within the family sphere, where unequal inheritance rights, early marriage, and unequal sharing of unpaid care work persist.
Restricted physical integrity
This category focuses on women’s control over their own bodies. Are they protected from intimate partner violence, rape, sexual harassment, and female genital mutilation? Do they have access to sexual and reproductive health services and the right to make their own decisions about contraception and family planning? Physical integrity violations limit women’s autonomy and have lasting consequences on their health, education, and economic participation.
Restricted access to productive and financial resources
Economic empowerment depends on access to resources. This dimension asks whether women have equal legal rights to own land and other assets, open bank accounts, and obtain credit from financial institutions. It also examines workplace rights, including maternity and parental leave provisions and the freedom to choose one’s profession or start a business. Without equal economic access, women remain economically dependent and unable to fully participate in development.
Restricted civil liberties
This dimension captures restrictions on women’s participation in public and social life. Do women and men have equal citizenship and nationality rights? Can women travel freely within and outside their country? Do they have the same legal rights to vote and hold political office? These restrictions on civil liberties prevent women from having voice and representation in the decisions that shape their communities and nations.
Why SIGI matters for policy and development
SIGI serves multiple purposes beyond academic research. It provides concrete data that policymakers, researchers, and organizations can use to identify where discrimination is most entrenched and design interventions accordingly.
The index is one of the official data sources for monitoring SDG Indicator 5.1.1, which tracks whether legal frameworks exist to promote, enforce, and monitor gender equality and women’s empowerment. This connection to the Sustainable Development Goals means SIGI data directly informs global efforts to achieve gender equality by 2030.
By highlighting discriminatory social institutions, SIGI helps governments understand that legal reforms alone aren’t enough. Countries need comprehensive strategies that address both formal laws and informal social norms. For example, a country might legally allow women to own property, but if social norms discourage it or banks refuse women’s loan applications, the legal right remains hollow.
SIGI data reveals important patterns. Higher levels of discrimination in social institutions strongly correlate with lower female participation in paid labor. Education emerges as a powerful force for change. The higher the percentage of women who can read and write, the lower the discrimination they experience in social institutions.
Between 2019 and 2023, many countries enacted legal reforms protecting women’s rights, particularly addressing violence against women, preventing child marriage, and increasing women’s political representation. However, progress remains fragile and uneven. Some social norms around women’s economic empowerment have actually worsened during this period.
From measurement to action
SIGI’s real value lies in its ability to guide transformative change. By making visible what was previously hidden, the index helps stakeholders understand that gender inequality isn’t just about individual attitudes. It’s embedded in the very structure of societies through institutions that have operated for generations.
The framework encourages bold action from multiple actors. Governments need to reform discriminatory laws and support them with comprehensive policies. Development partners and civil society organizations can use SIGI data to target their interventions where they’re most needed. The private sector can recognize how discriminatory social institutions limit their talent pools and market opportunities.
Importantly, SIGI recognizes that discrimination isn’t one-dimensional. Women face intersecting forms of discrimination based on age, ethnicity, location, religion, and other factors that compound gender-based barriers. Effective solutions must address these multiple layers of inequality.
The challenge ahead is substantial. At current rates of progress, closing gaps in legal protection and removing discriminatory laws could take centuries. But by illuminating the institutional roots of gender inequality, SIGI provides a roadmap for where to focus resources and political will.
What do you think? How might discriminatory social institutions in your community create barriers for women and girls that legal equality alone can’t solve? What role can individuals play in challenging social norms that perpetuate gender inequality?
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