Belarus among leaders in Europe, Central Asia in gender equality

The specialists explained that the Gender Equality Index (GEI) evaluates gender inequality in terms of three dimensions: reproductive health, empowerment, and labor market participation. Reproductive health is evaluated according to the maternal mortality ratio and the adolescent fertility rate; the empowerment dimension is measured by the share of parliamentary seats held by women and by the attainment to secondary and higher education by each sex; the labor market dimension is measured by women's participation in the workforce and distribution of roles between men and women. Belarus' Gender Inequality Index is 0.152, which places it 28th among 149 countries. For example, Azerbaijan ranks 62nd.

The Gender-Related Development Index (GDI) was included in the Human Development Report for the first time in 2014. It describes the situation in the country according to three main dimensions of human development: health (in terms of male and female life expectancy at birth); education attainment (in terms of school life expectancy and the average number of years that adults aged 25 and over spend on education); management of economic resources (in terms of the share of each sex to GDP per capita). The list of countries evaluated according to the Gender-Related Development Index features 149 states. In 2013 the GDI reached 0.793 for Belarusian women, and 0.777 for men. In the result Belarus' GDI is 1.021, BelTA reports.

The Human Development Report (HDR) is an annual milestone published by the Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) since 1990. The 2014 HDR "Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience" features two closely interrelated concepts that are extremely important for the achievement of progress in human development.