Annex A. Conceptual framework of the SIGI Tanzania
The conceptual framework of the SIGI Tanzania covers four dimensions spanning major socio-economic areas that affect women’s and girls’ entire lifetimes:
“Discrimination in the family” captures discriminatory social norms, attitudes and practices that limit women’s decision-making power and undervalue their status in the household and the family.
“Restricted physical integrity” captures discriminatory social norms, attitudes and practices that increase women’s and girls’ vulnerability to multiple forms of violence and limit their control over their bodies and reproductive autonomy.
“Restricted access to productive and financial resources” captures women’s restricted access to and control over critical productive and economic resources and assets.
“Restricted civil liberties” captures discriminatory social norms, attitudes and practices restricting women’s access to and participation and voice in the public and social spheres.
Each dimension builds on three to five indicators. Each indicator results from the aggregation of two variables: one measuring the level of discrimination in attitudes and the other one measuring the level of discrimination in practice (Figure A A.1). Each variable builds on a different number of sub-variables that draw directly on the data of the SIGI Tanzania household survey (Table A A.1).
The SIGI Tanzania is a composite index. The scores for the overall index, the dimensions and the indicators range from 0 to 100, with 0 indicating no discrimination and 100 indicating absolute discrimination against women.
To compute the SIGI Tanzania, the same function is applied four successive times in order to:
1. For each indicator, aggregate all sub-variables into one attitudinal variable and one practice variable.
2. For each indicator, aggregate the attitudinal variable and the practice variable into the indicator.
3. For each dimension, aggregate the three to five indicators into the dimension.
4. Aggregate the four dimension into the SIGI Tanzania.
The aggregation function used is the same one used for the global SIGI, formalised for step (4) above as:
Depending on the number of sub-variables included in each indicator, different weights were used. In some cases, certain sub-variables within an indicator were given more weights than other sub-variables – see for instance the “Decision-making in the household” indicator in Table A A.1.
In order to fit the SIGI scale that ranges from 0 to 100, with 0 being the best outcome and 100 being the worst, all sub-variables are rescaled following a min-max normalisation process, which slightly varies depending on what the sub-variable measures:
Sub-variables measuring absolute levels of women’s deprivation: These sub-variables do not have a male counterpart. Examples include the prevalence rate of female genital mutilation or the share of women facing unmet needs for family planning. These sub-variables are expressed so that 0% corresponds to the best outcome for women – e.g. no women having experienced female genital mutilation – and 100% as the worst possible outcome for women – e.g. all women of reproductive age who want to delay a pregnancy with unmet needs for family planning.
Sub-variables measuring relative levels of achievement or deprivation of women compared to men as the fraction of women among a particular sub-population: For these sub-variables, the best possible outcome is 50% indicating equality between men and women and the worst possible outcome is 100% indicating that women account for the entire population deprived or facing discrimination. These sub-variables are capped at 50%, meaning that discrimination is considered as long as women’s share is above 50%. No penalties are applied if women are actually performing better than men and if their share drops below 50%. Examples include the share of the population declaring that they do not feel safe walking alone at night who are women, or the share of the population working in paid employment who are not women. These sub-variables are rescaled following a min-max normalisation process so that scores range from 0 to 100 with 0 being the best outcome for gender equality and 100 the worst possible outcome.
Sub-variables measuring the relative levels of achievement or deprivation of women compared to men as the female-to-male ratio: These sub-variables are calculated as the value for women divided by the value for men. For these sub-variables, the best possible outcome is 1, indicating equality between men and women. The worst possible outcome is the maximum value of the ratio across Tanzania’s 31 regions. These sub-variables are capped at 1, meaning that discrimination are considered as long as the female-to-male ratio is above 1. No penalties are applied if women are actually performing better than men and if the ratio drops below 1. Examples include the female-to male ratio of time spent on unpaid, domestic, care and voluntary work in a 7-day period on specific tasks or the ratio of number of boys wished over number of girls wished. These sub-variables are rescaled following a min-max normalisation process so that scores range from 0 to 100 with 0 being the best outcome for gender equality and 100 the worst possible outcome.
Scores in index, dimensions, indicators, variables and sub-variables of the SIGI Tanzania were computed at the national level, for rural and urban areas, for Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar as well as for the 31 regions of the country.