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MONITORING WOMEN’SECONOMIC ANDSOCIAL RIGHTSTHE ROLE OF GENDERSTATISTICSStatistics and data are important tools for assessingthe gender impacts and dimensions of economicand social policies. At the international level,substantive work on gender statistics can be tracedback to the 1980s, following the proclamation ofthe United Nations Decade for Women: Equality,Development and Peace (1976–1985). 1 Sincethen there have been important advances inrelated normative and technical standards. In1995, the Beijing Declaration and Platform forAction included a strong call ‘for generating anddisseminating gender-disaggregated data andinformation for planning and evaluation’. 2 Morerecently, in 2013, the United Nations StatisticalCommission (UNSC) endorsed a minimum setof gender indicators to serve as a guide for thecompilation of gender statistics; 3 and, in responseto a request from the United Nations GeneralAssembly, adopted a core set of nine indicators onviolence against women. 4Despite these advances, as each of the previouschapters and the following annex tables show,gender data gaps still exist in all areas and areparticularly acute when it comes to measuringpoverty and women’s access to personal incomeor social protection; the quantity and quality ofwomen’s work, including on informal employmentand time spent on unpaid care and domestic work;and women’s participation in public and civic lifeand decision-making.CHALLENGES FOR GENDER STATISTICSIn most developing countries, the production ofgender statistics is predominantly in areas such ashealth, education and employment. Even in theseareas, however, adequate, consistent and timelyproduction of gender indicators is often lacking. Onother issues that require more specialized surveys—such as time use, violence against women and girls,and voice and participation—data availability iseven more limited. 5Labour market indicatorsLabour force and other multipurpose householdsurveys are fairly well established, but theirprincipal aim is to measure headline indicatorssuch as labour force participation, employmentand unemployment rates. This means that data243