Gender Equality Indices as a Measure of Gender Inequality in Development Indicators: Can These Indices Measure Inequality?

The increasing use of gender indices today shapes the production of information and policies on gender inequality on an international scale. This makes it important to question how these indices produce information and policies, as well as how they measure gender inequality. In this regard, the study seeks to answer the following questions: Are gender indices sufficient criteria for measuring inequality from conceptual and theoretical perspectives? Are the indicators and variables in these indices appropriate for reflecting gender inequality? Based on these questions, the study critically examines the indices developed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which pioneered the establishment and widespread use of gender indices on the international agenda. The study then examines the gender indices developed as a result of the debates sparked by the UNDP's indices and provides a general assessment of the knowledge production process underlying all of these indices. The study argues that gender indices are problematic and inadequate criteria for reflecting inequality because they conceptually address gender inequalities narrowly in terms of indicator selection. They also negatively affect the production of gender policies by narrowing their meaning and making policy production dependent on experts' empirical measurements. Thus, they are problematic and inadequate criteria for reflecting inequality. The importance of this study lies in its critical evaluation of gender indices that have developed in dialogue with one another, thereby questioning their adequacy in measuring and reflecting gender inequalities.