University of Isfahan Journal of Applied Sociology 2008-5745 24 1 2013 06 22 A Comparative Study of Gender Development Indexes in the Province of Lorestan in 2006 A Comparative Study of Gender Development Indexes in the Province of Lorestan in 2006 137 152 18295 FA Asadolah Naghdi Associate Professor, Department of Social Sciences, Bu Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran Ali Kordalivand M.A. Social Sciences, Bu Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran Journal Article 2016 06 14 Gender inequality is a part of socio-economic inequality in all societies. Overcoming discrimination is most  important in the  poverty reduction programmes every societies especialy in developing countries and a  useful tools for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals that announced by UNDP. The Gander development index (GDI) is often considered a “gender-sensitive extension of the HDI” (Klasen 245). It addresses gender-gaps in life expectancy, education, and incomes. It uses an “inequality aversion” penalty, which creates a development score penalty for gender gaps in any of the categories of the Human Development Index which include life expectancy, adult literacy, school enrollment, and logarithmic transformations of per-capita income. The GDI cannot be used independently from the Human Development Index (HDI) score and so, it cannot be used on its own as an indicator of gender-gaps. Only the gap between the HDI and the GDI can actually be accurately considered; the GDI on its own is not an independent measure of gender-gaps. In the years since its creation in 1995, much debate has arisen surrounding the reliability, and usefulness of the Gender Development Index (GDI) in making adequate comparisons between different countries and in promoting gender-sensitive development. The GDI is particularly criticized for being often mistakenly interpreted as an independent measure of gender-gaps when it is not, in fact, intended to be interpreted in that way, because it can only be used in combination with the scores from the Human Development Index, but not on its own. Additionally, the data that is needed in order to calculate the GDI is not always readily available in many countries, making the measure very hard to calculate uniformly and internationally (Ibid). So the participation and role of women in various cultural, social, economic and political fields determine levels of development indicators in each country around the world. Existing data’s  shows  that women's condition in Iran’s  during last decades have dual status. In terms of some HDI indicators component such as   health and education, women in Iran are in a situation more better than most countries in the region, but their share of participation rate  in labor market and income earning  is in very low level in compare with other developing countries. In this case Lorestan province  is one of  the  most  poor areas. Gender inequality is a part of socio-economic inequality in all societies. Overcoming discrimination is most  important in the  poverty reduction programmes every societies especialy in developing countries and a  useful tools for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals that announced by UNDP. The Gander development index (GDI) is often considered a “gender-sensitive extension of the HDI” (Klasen 245). It addresses gender-gaps in life expectancy, education, and incomes. It uses an “inequality aversion” penalty, which creates a development score penalty for gender gaps in any of the categories of the Human Development Index which include life expectancy, adult literacy, school enrollment, and logarithmic transformations of per-capita income. The GDI cannot be used independently from the Human Development Index (HDI) score and so, it cannot be used on its own as an indicator of gender-gaps. Only the gap between the HDI and the GDI can actually be accurately considered; the GDI on its own is not an independent measure of gender-gaps. In the years since its creation in 1995, much debate has arisen surrounding the reliability, and usefulness of the Gender Development Index (GDI) in making adequate comparisons between different countries and in promoting gender-sensitive development. The GDI is particularly criticized for being often mistakenly interpreted as an independent measure of gender-gaps when it is not, in fact, intended to be interpreted in that way, because it can only be used in combination with the scores from the Human Development Index, but not on its own. Additionally, the data that is needed in order to calculate the GDI is not always readily available in many countries, making the measure very hard to calculate uniformly and internationally (Ibid). So the participation and role of women in various cultural, social, economic and political fields determine levels of development indicators in each country around the world. Existing data’s  shows  that women's condition in Iran’s  during last decades have dual status. In terms of some HDI indicators component such as   health and education, women in Iran are in a situation more better than most countries in the region, but their share of participation rate  in labor market and income earning  is in very low level in compare with other developing countries. In this case Lorestan province  is one of  the  most  poor areas. https://jas.ui.ac.ir/article_18295_c4302b32fe265481c118ff6c97b18eb0.pdf