Challenges in measuring gender and minorities

Strategies for the improvement of the collection, compiling and dissemination of statistics with a gender stratification have been developed and implemented in many European countries. However, these statistics are often available at national level with total aggregate number and hide important characteristics that may be different between women and men, not only from mainstream population group, but also among and between minority groups. For a recent past, identifying such differences between women and men from different minority subgroups have been realised in order to formulate appropriate development policies by which societal cohesion can be maintained. National, regional and international bodies are therefore increasingly interested on minority rights and intra-gender equality. However, reliable and timely data reflecting the reality of women and men from different minority sub-groups in the national statistics are rarely presented.