Enhancing Data Collection on Gender by the U.S. Administration Is Critical

Enhancing Data Collection on Gender by the U.S. Administration Is Critical

The Biden administration has shown a keen interest in improving gender data collection, a crucial aspect of achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This focus is particularly important for SDG 1 ("No Poverty") and SDG 10 ("Reduced Inequalities"), as data on remittances, the financial transfers between individuals across national borders, is currently not collected by the United States.

International organisations such as the World Bank, UN Women, and the OECD have already taken strides in this area, developing their own gender statistics programs. For instance, the World Bank's gender data portal provides the gender breakdown of business owners, a statistic that is already collected by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The administration's commitment to gender data collection is further evidenced by the publication of the National Strategy on Gender and Equality in October 2021. This strategy outlines a government-wide effort to advance equal rights, with a particular focus on better gender data collection.

However, there are challenges to overcome. Different U.S. agencies collect data on sexual violence using different definitions, leading to variations in methodologies and terminology. Moreover, many surveys miss entire demographic groups, such as those Americans whose gender identity may be outside the traditional binary.

To address these issues, the administration is proposing key improvements:

1. Standardizing Methodologies: Consistent sampling and data collection methods, such as address-based sampling with stratified random samples and weighted adjustments, can ensure representativeness and comparability across datasets.
2. Including Diverse Demographic Groups: Integrating sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data systematically in surveys and health data collection can capture multidimensional measures of gender beyond the male/female binaries.
3. Enhancing Availability and Accessibility: Establishing coordinated national infrastructures for collecting, managing, and sharing gender data across sectors can ensure privacy and ethical considerations while promoting training for professionals on gender diversity and biases.
4. Addressing Intersectionality and Confounders: Collecting data on socioeconomic, clinical, and cultural factors influencing gender disparities can enable analysis of specific needs and outcomes.

These steps aim to address inconsistencies in methods, fill gaps in demographic representation, and improve the availability and usability of gender data for informed, equitable policy-making.

The administration also recognises the importance of supporting the continued efforts of international statistical organisations to improve gender data and investing in national and sub-national statistical systems strengthening. Global initiatives like Data2X have already made significant strides in this area.

Congress plays a crucial role in ensuring agencies have the necessary funding for gender data collection and monitoring. For instance, the Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) data on state-level wealth and asset ownership does not have most categories disaggregated by gender.

As the Biden administration continues to build its own domestic statistical capacity, it will be essential to ensure not only the collection but also the monitoring and analysis of newly collected gender data for effective policy-making.

1. The Biden administration's focus on gender data collection aligns with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 1 ("No Poverty") and SDG 10 ("Reduced Inequalities"), as current data on remittances is not collected by the United States.
2. International organisations like the World Bank, UN Women, and the OECD have already made progress in gender data collection, for example, the World Bank's gender data portal offers the gender breakdown of business owners.
3. The administration's strategy for advancing gender data collection includes standardizing methodologies, including consistent sampling and data collection methods, to ensure representativeness and comparability across datasets.
4. Addressing the issue of inconsistent definitions in data collection on sexual violence requires standardization, and many surveys currently miss entirely demographic groups such as Americans with gender identities outside the traditional binary.
5. To fill gaps in demographic representation and improve the availability and usability of gender data, the administration proposes including diverse demographic groups in surveys, health data collection, and establishing coordinated national infrastructures for collecting, managing, and sharing gender data.
6. The Biden administration sees the importance of supporting the efforts of international statistical organisations like Data2X and investing in national and sub-national statistical systems strengthening to improve gender data collection and policy-making, with Congress playing a critical role in ensuring agencies have the necessary funding for data collection and monitoring.

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