An Axiomatic Approach to the Measurement of Comparative Female Disadvantage

Female comparative disadvantage refers to the mismatch of the female with respect to achievements in different dimensions of human well-being in comparison with the corresponding achievements of the male. This paper axiomatically derives a general family of female comparative disadvantage indicators which has very important policy implications. The axioms employed are shown to be ‘independent’. An empirical illustration of the general index is provided using the UNDP data on mean years of schooling, life expectancy at birth and gross national income per capita in 2018. Results show that female comparative disadvantage is not necessarily related to standard measures of human development, such as the HDI, and is present even in countries reaching very high human development. The factor where policy intervention is needed the most is income.