Gender Equality Index Development Project

Since March 2024, the Institute for Sustainable Future Studies has been implementing the Gender Equality Index Development Project to design data-driven evaluation indicators for more inclusive and practical gender equality policies. To overcome the limitations of existing national gender indices, such as lack of cultural sensitivity, inability to reflect women's real-life experiences, and over-reliance on macro statistics, the project is a collaborative effort among researchers, gender experts, and university students from diverse backgrounds.

The project was carried out through a series of steps: analysis of existing indicator frameworks, interviews and consultations with stakeholders, comparative analysis of models from overseas regions, and finally the construction of a matrix of indicators with local relevance and effectiveness. In particular, the IFSD emphasized the importance of quantitative indicators, proposing a new set of items to measure areas close to everyday life, such as access to education, subjective perceptions of safety, caregiving burdens, and participation in informal leadership.

Project results were presented at the IFSD Fall Conference in 2024 and have since been published as policy proposals and open access materials, which are actively shared with national and international research and policy networks. Through these efforts, IFSD is providing an alternative civil society-led tool for gender equality policy innovation, which is an important contribution to achieving SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 10 (End Inequalities), and SDG 17 (Partnership for the Goals).