The GREAT Gender Index

The GREAT Gender Index project aims to build a set of practical tools to inspire and support the gender equality movement around the world. Good, accessible data is vital to understand where we are and monitor progress and currently no comprehensive resource exists to provide this. Developed by world leading gender rights, human development and business experts, these indices will capture the defining gaps in men and women’s opportunities and outcomes, and examine how and where they are successfully addressed.

Our Country Index provides an overview of social and economic relations at the national level, and is complemented by a Corporate Gender Index assessing equity in the workplace, where barriers exist, how they differ across organisations and countries and what can be done to drive better outcomes for all employees and the company as a whole.

The GREAT Country Index

The GREAT Country Index aims to produce a simple measure reflecting the life chances – social, political and economic – available to women compared to men in every country around the world. Every year it will map and monitor progress towards gender equality, collating data from existing sources on the factors most critical to women’s lives.

These will build upon existing indices, looking at the relative positions of men and women within countries and incorporating a greater emphasis on physical integrity and exploitation. To ensure the index reflects the diverse challenges faced by women and men worldwide, and to ensure it’s as effective and useful as possible, the development of the index will be led by an international committee of experts, coordinated by GREAT. This will include academics, researchers, and representatives from NGOs, International Organisations and business and be supported by a wider network of reviewers and advisors.

The GREAT Business Index

With a similar model to our Country Index, the GREAT Business Index will provide a simple, accessible guide to the challenges women and men face in the workplace, how these are overcome and where barriers persist.

Starting in 2013 with a pilot index ranking the UK’s 50 largest employers, the index will over time become a comprehensive guide to women’s opportunities in international business.

A growing body of research highlights the association between diversity in the boardroom and company performance, and the value of representative staff bodies in a company’s public image and staff morale as well as its capacity to maximise its customer reach.

Alongside this index therefore, GREAT will work with UK companies and a management consultancy partner to support employers’ work to promote gender equity. This will provide participating companies the opportunity to gain an independent, recognised assessment of the relative position of men and women in their organisations and recommendations in making the best use of their female employees’ potential.

The GREAT Awards

The GREAT Awards recognise exceptional achievements in gender equity each year. This is an opportunity for GREAT’s stakeholders, patrons, advisors and committee members to celebrate the inspirational leaders and role models who have driven the greatest changes in gender equity worldwide.

Key awards will include recognition for excellence in national policy and programming, organisational progress, innovative programming and interventions and individual achievements in promoting gender equity worldwide.