The GREAT Gender Atlas

Gender equality is now widely accepted as beneficial to men, women and children alike, economically smart and socially profitable. Yet massive disparities remain in every country in the world.

Good, accessible information is vital to redressing this: to understanding where the problems are and how they can be tackled. Great’s Gender Atlas will increase the accessibility of advocacy data by providing clear indices on the gaps between men and women’s outcomes in every part of life. Freely available online, they will make valuable data easily accessible to all who need it, strengthening the voice of advocates and grassroots practitioners and stimulating research worldwide.

A number of global gender indices have been developed in recent years, playing a valuable role in advancing the profile of gender equity and holding governments and organisations to account. Yet all present just one score per country, and highlighting the absolute best and worst performers inevitably takes some attention away from the detail.

Precisely because inequalities in gender affect every person in every part of life, attention to the details and complexities of this issue are vital. Great’s Gender Atlas will build a new series of Indices, examining every issues in turn and drawing a real picture of life for women and men around the world, better equipping us to address the arbitrary differences which determine so much.

The Gender Atlas aims to produce simple indices of the life chances available to women compared to men in every country in the world, mapping key parts of people’s lives - violence, education, human rights, economics, health - and how these are different for men and women around the world.

The Atlas will be freely available online from late 2013, forming a resource for campaigners and advocates worldwide to engage with the real story of gender inequalities today. The exceptional achievements in gender equity and grass roots projects identified through the Atlas project and networks will then be recognised through the annual GREAT Awards in December. This event will be the platform through which GREAT’s stakeholders, patrons and advisors to celebrate the inspirational leaders and role models who have driven great advances in gender equality worldwide.