Bridging the Gender Data Gap: Using Census Data to Understand Gender Inequalities Across the UK
Lead Research Organisation:
King's College London
Department Name: The Policy Institute
Abstract
Gender inequalities remain a persistent problem in the UK. The availability of gender or sex disaggregated data is critical for policy, research, and advocacy to understand and address these inequalities, yet at present there remain significant data gaps. The UK census provides a once-in-a-decade opportunity to address these gaps by leveraging population data at different geographical levels and protected characteristics.
The proposed work will facilitate the discovery and use of census data for gender equality analysis across UK local areas, while demonstrating how they help bridge gender data gaps. The funding will allow a range of new users to engage in activities that promote awareness of the wide variety of multivariate census data for such analyses.
Building on our expertise, we will deliver activities and resources in line with the funding call:
training and networking related to the use of census data infrastructure for gender equality analysis and to address gender data gaps.
guidance on how to use census data for gender equality research and advocacy.
research-ready and linked dataset measuring spatial variation in gender equality levels across the UK.
communications and engagement to facilitate the use of data for gender equality analysis, particularly across the UK censuses collectively.
The Global Institute for Women's Leadership (GIWL) will deliver these in partnership with the Women's Budget Group, who run the Local Data Project aimed at strengthening the capacity of women's organisations for using data for advocacy. In May 2023, we co-hosted an event on the potential of the England/ Wales census 2021 in bridging the gender data gap. The morning panel was attended by 112 representatives from the women's sector, research/policy community, and public with over 1,100 views online. In the afternoon, we delivered a data workshop with 30 delegates from women's organisations. The attendance and feedback signal great appetite for additional workshops to explore the census data from a gender perspective.
The ESRC funds will be used to run in-person workshops across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland targeting women's organisations, local authorities, and early-career academics to support analysis of gender and regional inequalities. Our proposal is unique in two ways. Firstly, we offer an explicitly gendered perspective on census data to engage new users who have less data analysis experience and are therefore less aware of the value of the census for understanding gender and regional inequality in the UK. Secondly, we will offer access and a demonstration of a new research-ready dataset currently being created by GIWL to measure gender equality levels across UK local areas. This dataset draws heavily on the UK census, exemplifying how these data can be combined with survey and administrative data for social science research.
We will produce targeted user guidance that will be publicly accessible on our website, along with the new research-ready dataset. Further, we will deliver workshops to international organisations specialising in gender equality indices to promote the strength of the UK data landscape and demonstrate how national censuses can be used to create subnational indices.
The proposed work will facilitate the discovery and use of census data for gender equality analysis across UK local areas, while demonstrating how they help bridge gender data gaps. The funding will allow a range of new users to engage in activities that promote awareness of the wide variety of multivariate census data for such analyses.
Building on our expertise, we will deliver activities and resources in line with the funding call:
training and networking related to the use of census data infrastructure for gender equality analysis and to address gender data gaps.
guidance on how to use census data for gender equality research and advocacy.
research-ready and linked dataset measuring spatial variation in gender equality levels across the UK.
communications and engagement to facilitate the use of data for gender equality analysis, particularly across the UK censuses collectively.
The Global Institute for Women's Leadership (GIWL) will deliver these in partnership with the Women's Budget Group, who run the Local Data Project aimed at strengthening the capacity of women's organisations for using data for advocacy. In May 2023, we co-hosted an event on the potential of the England/ Wales census 2021 in bridging the gender data gap. The morning panel was attended by 112 representatives from the women's sector, research/policy community, and public with over 1,100 views online. In the afternoon, we delivered a data workshop with 30 delegates from women's organisations. The attendance and feedback signal great appetite for additional workshops to explore the census data from a gender perspective.
The ESRC funds will be used to run in-person workshops across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland targeting women's organisations, local authorities, and early-career academics to support analysis of gender and regional inequalities. Our proposal is unique in two ways. Firstly, we offer an explicitly gendered perspective on census data to engage new users who have less data analysis experience and are therefore less aware of the value of the census for understanding gender and regional inequality in the UK. Secondly, we will offer access and a demonstration of a new research-ready dataset currently being created by GIWL to measure gender equality levels across UK local areas. This dataset draws heavily on the UK census, exemplifying how these data can be combined with survey and administrative data for social science research.
We will produce targeted user guidance that will be publicly accessible on our website, along with the new research-ready dataset. Further, we will deliver workshops to international organisations specialising in gender equality indices to promote the strength of the UK data landscape and demonstrate how national censuses can be used to create subnational indices.
