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Men are more disadvantaged than women in 91 countries, the study says.
Researchers from the University of Missouri and University of Essex in the United Kingdom say a new way of measuring gender inequality is fairer to both men and women, and presents a simplified but more accurate picture of peoples' well-being than previous calculations. The new Basic Index of Gender Inequality (BIGI) focuses on three factors --
educational opportunities, healthy life expectancy and overall life satisfaction.
"We calculated BIGI scores for 134 nations, representing 6.8 billion people," said David Geary, Curators Distinguished Professor of Psychological Sciences in the MU College of Arts and Science about the study, published today in
PLOS ONE, one of the world's leading peer-reviewed journals focused on science and medicine. "Surprisingly, our new measure indicated that
men are, on average, more disadvantaged than women in 91 countries compared with a relative disadvantage for women in 43 countries. We sought to correct the bias toward women's issues in existing measures and at the same time develop a simple measure that is useful in any country in the world, regardless of their level of economic development."
Using the BIGI measure, the researchers found
the most developed countries in the world come closest to achieving gender equality, albeit with a slight advantage for women. In the least developed countries, women nearly always fall behind men -- largely because they have fewer opportunities to get a good education. The picture is more mixed in countries with medium-levels of development, with nearly the same number of countries where women fall behind as countries where men fall behind.
The men's disadvantage is largely due to a shorter healthy lifespan.
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