Engendering Human Development: A Critique of the UNDP’s Gender-Related Development Index

Abstract

This article reviews the literature critiquing the United Nations Development Programme’s Gender-related Development Index (GDI), which is a measure of human development penalized for the extent of gender inequality in each country; presents several original critiques of GDI; and presents proposed corrections to the GDI in response to both received and original critiques. Elizabeth Stanton is a researcher at the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University.Gender-related Development Index; GDI; human development; gender disparities