1.1

The Equal Opportunities Commission in 1997 commissioned the Gender Research Programme of the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies (HKIAPS) and the Department of Psychology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, to conduct a study on the statistical analysis of Census data relating to gender and disability.

 

1.2

The overall objectives of the study are:

 

 

2.1

This study includes a collection of tabulated data relating to gender and disability in Hong Kong. The primary sources of data and statistics are from the full set of the Census data in 1981, 1986, 1991 and 1996 as well as from the information reported in the Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics and General Household Survey published by the Census and Statistical Department. Supplementary sources include such as the annual and special reports of various related government departments, public documents or reports by relevant non-government organisations as well as reports published in academic journals and by the United Nations.

 

2.2

Statistics on Gender Equality Indicators are collected from 1981 to the present years and include the following content areas: Population and demographics, marriage and family, education, work and employment, welfare and health, crime and punishment, civic and political participation. A Gender Equality Index (GEI) is computed based on selected core indicators of the above content areas.

 

2.3

Statistics on Disability Equality Indicators include the estimated prevalence rates, expenditure and supply of rehabilitation services, number of individuals enrolling in various rehabilitation services, rates for successful selective job placements, estimated median income and appointment to the Civil Services. Core indicators similar to the GEI are used to compile the Disability Equality Index (DEI) from the 1981 Census data to reflect the relative position of persons with a disability to those without a disability. Analyses are also performed to determine how men and women with a disability differed from each other in literacy rate, educational attainment, labour force participation and income.

 

3.

Population and Demographics

 

3.1

Gender-related statistics on demographic indicators include: gender and age composition of the population, number of births and deaths as well as life expectancy.

 

3.2

The overall sex ratio of Hong Kong has become more balanced. In general, men have outnumbered women in all age groups except those at or above 65 years old. In recent years, there have been slightly more women than men for those aged 20-39 years old.

 

3.3

The total fertility rate, defined as the average number of children that would be born alive to a woman during her life time, has stabilised at around 1.2 live birth per woman. However, the general fertility rate, defined as the annual number of live births to the mid-year population of women aged 15-49, has dropped remarkably from 65.2 in 1981 to 36.8 in 1996.

 

3.4

The expectation of life at birth for both men and women has increased from 78.5 to 81.8 during 1981 to 1996. Women have a higher life expectancy than men, but the gender difference has been slightly narrowed during the last 15 years.

 

3.5

Male mortality rate has generally been higher than female mortality rate at each age group, but the gender gap has also narrowed over times. However, men's mortality rate is still significantly higher than those of women among older age groups.

 

 

 

4.

Marriage and Family

 

4.1

Gender-related statistics on this area include marital condition of the population, the size and structure of the family and the pattern and trends in marriage and divorce in Hong Kong.

 

4.2

Several major changes in Hong Kong's households are noted. The average number of persons per household has dropped from 4.2 in 1976 to 3.4 in 1996, and the percentages of households with 4 or less members have also increased from 56.98% to 78.26% in this period. There is also a trend toward small nuclear family, with an increase from 54.4% to 63.6% in the percentages of domestic households consisting of one unextended nuclear family and a decrease of 13.6% to 9.9% of domestic households consisting of one vertically extended nuclear family.

 

4.3

From 1981 to 1996, with the growing up of the baby-boom cohort, for those who are 15 or over, the percentages of never married individuals have declined while the percentages of being married have increased. However, the percentages of divorced and separated persons have also increased.

 

4.4

A detailed examination of the marital behaviour of the population shows that the marriage rates, defined as the number of marriages per 1,000 people, have gone down for both men and women. The proportions of never-married men and women have also increased among those aged 20-44, with the increase being more marked among women than men. Both genders are also delaying their marriages, resulting in an increase in the population's median age at first marriage.

4.5

The divorce cases and divorce rates have risen rapidly in the last two decades. The number of petition cases has since increased about 5 times to 12,834 in 1996, and the total number of divorce decrees also shows similar increases. The crude divorce rate, defined as the total number of divorce decrees granted for 1,000 populations, has increased from .41 in 1980 to 1.5 in 1996.

 

 

 

5.

Education

 

5.1

This section reports on the distribution of educational opportunity between the two genders, including educational access, participation, outcome and its impact on life chances.

 

5.2

There is no gender difference in the attendance rates at the primary school level, but more girls than boys attend secondary school and matriculation courses. Men's advantage in their access to tertiary and adult and continuing education has been slowly disappearing, with the attendance rates being quite similar for both genders in recent years.

 

5.3

There are generally equal resources and common curriculum for both genders at the basic nine years of education. At the post-graduation level, women have dominated the enrolment in sub-degree programmes and teacher and nursing training courses. Unequal educational participation also occurs at the universities. Women tend to concentrate in the arts, business and social science faculties in the comprehensive and liberal arts universities, while men concentrate in the science, engineering and medical faculties in the science and technology universities.

 

5.4

The overall educational attainment of the population has increased rapidly over the years from 1981 to 1996, particularly in upper secondary and university degree education. Obvious gender differences are noted. Women have caught up and overtook men in their secondary educational attainment since late 1980s, but continue to lag behind men in higher educational attainment.

 

5.5

Education for women has a less favourable effect on their life chance, as compared to men. Despite both genders have the same educational attainment, women generally earn less than men. For young working adults aged 15-26, gender differentials in earnings have decreased for those with post-secondary education, but increased for those with only primary or below primary education. The rates of education return for this young age group were lower for women than for men in the four Census years.

 

5.6

The percentages of education expenditure to total government expenditure have maintained at around 17% in recent years. Gender segregation is also evident in the teaching professions, with female teachers outnumbering male teachers at the lower levels of education but a reverse pattern at the tertiary education level.

 

 

 

6.

Work and Employment

 

6.1

This section explores the status of women relative to men in the work and employment. The indicators include the level of labour force participation, the pattern of employment and unemployment, occupational segregation and pay differentials between the two genders.

 

6.2

The current overall female labour force participation rate of 48% is comparable to those in developed countries, but has not increased much since 1984. However, the social and demographic composition of the female labour force has undergone significant changes. In recent years, there is increasing number of young women aged 25-39, especially those with tertiary education, participating in the labour force. On the other hand, there has been a drop in labour force participation among older and less-educated women, probably due to the restructuring of industries in Hong Kong.

 

6.3

The pattern of female labour force participation has changed form the 'double peak' type to an 'early peak' type, which refers to women's substantial participation in the economy prior to their marriages and childbearing years but followed by a sharp decrease in later years. Married women particularly those with children are less likely to join the labour market, with their participation rates lower than the overall female participation rates in the four Census years.

 

6.4

The unemployment rates for men have been consistently higher than those for women, with their respective rates being 2.3 and 2.0 in 1997. Women still constitute a large proportion of unpaid family workers, but the absolute number and proportion of female employers and government civil servants has steadily increased. There has been a marked reduction of female workers in the manufacturing industry but significant increases in the service industry during the past 15 years. There is an increasing number of women working in the managerial and administrative, professional and associate professional occupations.

 

6.5

The sex segregation index in occupation tells the proportion of men or women that would have to change their occupations in order for the occupation distribution to be equal for the two genders. The value of indexes has changed slightly from 1976 to 1986, suggesting a slight increase in sex segregation and feminisation of certain occupations such as clerical and service jobs. However, the index values remain quite consistent between 1991 and 1996, indicating that the existing pattern of occupational sex segregation has not been changed.

 

6.6

The income gap between men and women has narrowed over time, but women are still paid less than men in similar jobs with equivalent educational attainment. Currently, an average working woman earns only about 76% of an average working man from her main employment. The gender gap in income is smaller for workers under 30 and in white-collar occupations, and becomes greatest for those workers aged between 35-49, working in the elementary occupations, and working in the manufacturing and service industries.

 

 

 

7.

Welfare and Health

 

7.1

This section summarises available statistics on welfare provision and health status, and includes the gender composition of welfare recipients and their activity status as well as an analyses of cause-specific mortality rates for both genders.

 

7.2

The elderly people are the major recipients of the welfare provision. However, an increasing number of single parent families also seeks welfare assistance from the government.

 

7.3

Overall, the gender ratio of welfare recipients is about equal but varies with different age groups. Male welfare recipients are generally younger than female welfare recipients. There is a trend that men who seek social security assistance are becoming younger, but the opposite trend is noted among women who have received similar welfare provision.

 

7.4

Men and women seek social security assistance for different reason. A majority of men receive welfare assistance for a disability or ill health, while women live on welfare assistance because they have to stay at home to look after young children or elderly and sick family members.

 

7.5

There have been significant decreases in government's payments to family and welfare programmes since mid-80's, while elderly and medical social services have received the largest share of welfare programme expenditure in recent years. It is noted that social changes may necessitate a periodic review of payments to various welfare programmes, particularly with the recent increases in the number of family problems.

 

7.6

Generally, men have slightly higher cause-specific mortality rates than women, with men having the highest mortality rates from neoplasms and women from diseases of the circulatory system.

 

7.7

Over the years, drug-related mortality rates have doubled, and men have always outnumbered women with the gender ratio of 4:1. The number of male drug addicts has been stabilised in recent years, but there has been significant increases of female drug addicts especially among the younger age groups.

 

7.8

The number of cases with HIV/AIDS has increased sharply since 1990, with men constituting over 90% of the infected cases. The number of women with HIV/AIDS has shown sharp increases in the last few years.

 

7.9

The number of deaths from suicides remained quite consistent over the years, and there are more men than women killing themselves, mainly by jumping from heights and hanging. However, there are more women than men seeking help from voluntary suicide hotline services.

 

7.10

There are more women than men working in the social welfare sectors and medical and health services, except at the treatment centres for drug addicts and dental laboratories.

 

 

 

8.

Crime and Punishment

 

8.1

This part summarises available information on crime and the criminal justice system to reflect any gendered pattern and changes over time. It focuses on the gender composition of the incarceration population, inmate reception, drug-related offenders, juvenile delinquents, success of aftercare services and offenders and victims of selected crimes.

 

8.2

Since 1980, female inmate population has increased more sharply than male inmate population. Despite the increases, male inmates still outnumber female inmates, who constitute only 10-16% of the total incarceration population.

 

8.3

There are significant changes in the gender composition of inmate reception to different penal institutions, especially among those under 21 years old. There are increases in the proportion of female inmate reception in the prisons and drug addiction training centres in recent years, particularly for those under 21, as compared to the predominance of the reception of male prisoners in the 1980's. However, the proportion of female inmate reception in the treatment centres for those under 21 has shown a decreasing trend. In 1996, 80% of the female inmates served sentences of less than 12 months, while 65% of the male inmates served the same sentences. But, only about 1% of the female inmates served in long sentence terms that last for more than 3 years while about 8% of the male inmates did.

 

8.4

According to the police reports, the number of reported cases for rape was around 66-87 from 1980 to 1987, increased to over 100 cases in 1995, and then declined to 74 in 1997. The detection rates of rape cases have shown steady improvement over the years, with the average detection rate being 63.5% from 1980 to 1997. The number of persons arrested for rape was very low in the early part of 80's, but showed sharp increases since 1988. The number has been maintained in the recent years except 1996.

 

8.5

Among the violent crime against person, the largest number of reported cases has been for indecent assault, which has also shown an increasing trend over the years. The detection rates for indecent assault have been quite consistent throughout the period, with an average of 66.1%. The number of persons arrested for this offence also increases steadily.

 

8.6

Except for unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor and keeping vice establishments, the other forms of sexual offences, which include procuration or abduction of female (e.g., living on earnings of prostitution), unnatural offences and other offences against public morality have shown a decreasing trend in recent years. The reporting of offences involving keeping vice establishments has declined from 1986 to 1993, but risen sharply in subsequent years. The detection rates for sexual offences have been quite high, averaging to over 85% in the last two decades, and the number of persons arrested for these offences has been on par with the number of reported cases.

 

8.7

For other gender-related crimes, the reported cases and the number of persons arrested in relation to operating unlicensed massage establishment have decreased significantly since 1980. Similar figures regarding soliciting or loitering for the purpose of prostitution have been quite erratic in the last two decades, but increased sharply for offences involving objectionable publications and pornographic literature.

 

8.8

Compared to 1980, the number of men arrested for major drug offences has doubled while the arrests for women have increased by 3.5 times in 1997. A majority of the female drug offenders are under 21 years old.

 

8.9

Except for those aged 51 and over, there have been steady increases of the number of female drug addicts across all age groups over the last two decades. Similar to male drug addicts, there have been alarming increases in the number of young female drug addicts aged under 20, who now constitute about 1/3 of all female drug addicts. In addition, the number of newly reported drug abusers has been greater for women than for men over the years. The mean ages of the new cases of drug abusers have decreased significantly, with women being always younger than men, but this gender gap has narrowed in the last few years.

 

8.10

The male to female arrest ratio for young offenders has declined from 6.0 in 1986 to 4.1 in 1997, suggesting that there have been overall increases in the arrest of female young offenders over the years.

 

8.11

Despite rapid increases in the number of female offenders and drug abusers in recent years, women only constitute about 10% of all the offenders who participated in the aftercare programmes. In general, female offenders have higher success rates than their male counterparts in the aftercare programmes.

 

8.12

Victimisation reports show that the victimisation rates have been higher for women than for men in all personal crimes, pickpocketing, theft and snatching; while men have had higher victimisation rates than women for crimes of violence, assault and criminal intimidation. For crimes against women such as rape and indecent assault, victimisation rates have increased gradually since 1981. Young male and female adolescents aged between 12-19 are now most vulnerable to personal crimes.

 

 

 

9.

Civic and Political Participation

 

9.1

This part examines the gender differences and trends over time in civic political participation including public office appointment, participation in election, voting turnout and union participation.

 

9.2

The percentages of women in government directorate posts have increased sharply from 4.9% in 1981 to 19.2% in 1998. Feminisation of senior government officials in the administrative officer rank is evident, with women outnumbering men since 1997. However, women have a low representation in the Judiciary.

 

9.3

Similar to other countries, there has been an under-representation of women at all levels of the political system. Currently (1998), there are 4 (26.7%) female councillors in the Executive Council, 10 (16.7%) in the Legislative Council, 13 (13%) in Municipal Councils, and 49 (10.5%) in the District Boards.

 

9.4

The number of female candidates in the District Boards and Municipal Council elections has increased over time and the female candidacy rate shows an upward trend. Female electability rate, defined as the number of female elected to the total number of candidates, has shown gradual increases over the years. However, the chance of women being elected has not changed much and is still lower than that of the male in these two tiers of political system. In the Legislative Council elections, both female candidacy and female electability rates have also shown gradual increases. As compared to male, female still have a much lower probability of being elected in the Legislative Council elections.

 

9.5

Currently (1998), there are slightly less women than men registered as voters (47.75% vs. 52.25%). In general, there are no gender differences in the voting turnout at the three levels of political system in the recent elections. There have been slightly higher voting turnout rates for female voters than male voters among the younger age groups.

 

9.6

The total number of female members in the trade unions has almost doubled between 1980 and 1993. The percentages of females in the unions have also increased from 23.22% in 1980 to 31.63% in 1993.

 

 

 

10.

Gender Equality Indexes

 

10.1

This part provides an overall picture and trend of gender equality development by using the full set of Census and by-Census data of 1981, 1986, 1991 and 1996. Two major indexes, i.e., the Gender Equality Index (GEI) and the Gender Development Index (GDI) are computed with indicators from various domains, using the values for 1981 as the baseline.

 

10.2

The Gender Equality Index (GEI) consists of the education, economic and household welfare gender equality summary indexes.

 

10.3

The education gender equality index is composed of indicators on literacy rate and enrolment in tertiary education. Gender equality in literacy has increased steadily over the years, whereas gender equality in full-time tertiary education has increased very rapidly from 1981 to 1991 but has slowed down in the recent decade. The gender equality index on education has been increasing over the years from the base value of 100 in 1981 to 122.5 in 1996, indicating that women's educational achievement has improved, but is still trailing behind men.

 

10.4

The revised economic gender equality index is composed of indicators on income, labour force participation rates and engagement in managerial occupations. Although women's earnings have since increased to 76% of men's earnings in 1996, gender inequality against women in income is still significant. The ratio of women-to-men labour force participation rate has increased only slightly from .59 in 1981 to .63 in 1996. Of those who are employed, women do not fare as well as men in engaging in the prestigious managerial occupations. While the ratio of proportion of women-to-men in the managerial occupations has increased over the years, the value is still less than half, i.e., .46. The revised economic gender equality index has increased steadily for about 8 points in every 5 years from the base value of 100 in 1981 to 123.6 in 1996.

 

10.5

The household welfare gender equality index includes 7 indicators on the number of male vs. female-headed households, total household income, percentages of household above poverty line, household size, average household income per household member, number of working household members and proportion of income remained after rent payment.

 

10.6

The ratio of female- to male-headed households has increased slightly from .35 to .37 between 1981 and 1996, suggesting significant gender inequality against women in holding a position that commands respect from the family members. The ratio of female- to male-headed household size, however, indicates that there is no difference in the size of the households headed by either gender. The ratio of female- to male-headed median household income has also increased slightly from .82 to .86 in the period, suggesting that the gender inequality in the household income is less than the gender differential in individual income (.76). While the percentages of female-headed household above the poverty line have increased to 74.1% in 1996, they are still lower than similar percentages of 81.8% for male-headed household. After rent payment, female-headed households have higher disposable income than male-headed households in the recent two Census years. The overall household welfare gender equality index has increased from the base value of 100 in 1981 to 121 in 1996.

 

10.7

The Gender Development Index (GDI) similar to that reported by the United Nations in 1995 is also computed for the four Census years as an alternate measure of gender equality. The GDI consists of three summary indexes: Life expectancy, education and income; all of them have shown improvement over the years. Currently, gender equity is most evident in life expectancy, followed by income and education. The GDI has increased from a value of .79 in 1981 to .87 in 1996. Despite the fact that the gender gap in the achievement of men and women has narrowed in Hong Kong in the last two decades, there is still gender inequality in various domains.

 

11.

Services Provision and Job Placement

 

11.1

There is a paucity of available statistics on disability. Information on disability was only collected in the 1981 Census. This part examines the provision of various rehabilitation services, job placement and wages of people with a disability.

 

11.2

Prior to the new categorisation of disabilities in 1994, the disability rate was estimated to be about 400 to 470 per 10,000. After the introduction of the new classification scheme, the disability prevalence rate is estimated about 560-580 per 10,000 people. The most prevalent forms of disabilities are mental handicap, physical handicap and mental illness.

 

11.3

There has been a sevenfold increase in the recurrent expenditure for rehabilitation services from 1984 to 1996. In recent years, about 11% of those with a disability are provided with various rehabilitation services. Hospital beds for patients with mental illness, day activity centres, sheltered workshops, selected placement, and special schools for persons with mental handicap are the major types of rehabilitation services. The non-government organisations have assumed an increasing important role in service provision, taking up about 91% of these services in 1996/97.

 

11.4

The number of persons with a disability waiting to receive rehabilitation services has also increased. Hostels and sheltered workshops for adults with a disability have the longest waiting list since 1988/89, while the waiting list for day activity centres for adults with a disability has significantly shortened in recent years.

 

11.5

Over the years, the placement rates of the Selective Placement Division have been around 40-50%. Persons with hearing impairment or mental handicap have higher placement rates, as compared to those with a history of mental illness, physical handicap and visual impairment. A majority of those with job placement work as clerks, service workers, production workers and labourers.

 

11.6

There has been a fourfold increase in the number of persons with a disability employed by various government departments in the recent years. Over the last few years, there is a net gain in retaining persons with a disability within the Civil Service.

 

11.7

There have been slow increases in the median wages of employed persons with a disability in this decade. The estimated disability earnings index, calculated as the median wages of persons with a disability to the general public, suggests that persons with a disability consistently earned less than the general population. In the last 7 years, their median monthly wages are only 47-58% of the general public.

 

11.8

The wages of persons with a disability have remained quite similar across different occupations. The disability earnings indexes are the lowest in administrative, managerial, professional and technical work over the years, indicating that these people earn only 21-37% of the general public with similar jobs. Furthermore, the disability earnings indexes show a decreasing trend in clerical and service jobs, suggesting that these people are making less and less than the general public in these occupations.

 

 

12.

Disability Equality Index

 

12.1

This part presents results of the analyses of the 1981 Census data on the literacy rate, educational attainment, labour participation, income, marital status and household information of persons with a disability. Disability Equality Indexes are computed for these domains to reflect the relative position of persons with a disability to persons without a disability.

 

12.2

The overall literacy rate for adults aged 15 or above with a disability was 59%, which is substantially lower than the rate of 84% of adults with no disability. The disability literacy equality index was .70, with inequality biased against those with a disability, which was more serious than inequality against women in this area. When compared to persons with a disability in all age groups, those aged 12-23 had the highest literacy rate of about 76%. When compared to different types of disability, those with mental illness had the highest adult literacy rate of 71%, followed by persons with physical disability and deafness (60%).

 

12.3

While about 4% of those young adults aged 18-23 without a disability enrolled in full-time tertiary education, only 1% of those with a disability were able to do. The tertiary education achievement index was .27, with inequality against those with a disability. Persons with blindness (5%) even had higher full-time tertiary education enrolment than those without any disability. None of those with deafness, mental illness and mental retardation were able to enrol full-time in tertiary education.

 

12.4

The educational attainment index is computed as the weighted average of adult literacy rate and full-time enrolment beyond kindergarten for people aged 6-23. The educational attainment index was .52 for people with a disability, which is substantially lower than .75 for those without a disability and .66 for women. Among the various disability groups, those with deafness had the highest index value of .58, while those with blindness had the lowest index value of .41.

 

12.5

The labour force participation rate of persons with a disability was 33%, which is substantially lower than 67% for those without a disability. Among the disability groups, the rates were highest for persons with deafness (38%) or mental retardation (37%), but lowest for those with blindness (22%).

 

12.6

Among those in the labour force, 65% of the persons with a disability were employed, which were substantially lower than 96% for those without a disability. Persons with mental illness had the lowest employment rate of 41%, while persons with deafness had the highest rate of 88%. Persons with a disability were more likely than those without a disability to be troubled by temporary illness in seeking employment, and the former also had a more pessimistic view of employment availability. Persons with a disability tended to work in jobs related to production and service industries.

 

12.7

In general, the median income of persons with a disability was only about 67% of the income earned by those without a disability in 1981. When the former was employed as managers or in the mining industry, their median income was on par with the latter group; but when the former held professional or associate professional jobs, etc. or in agricultural, construction, wholesale and services industries, they only earned about 60% to 70% of the latter group. Among the disability groups, those with physical disability had the best income ratio of 80% in relation to those without a disability, and those with mental retardation had the lowest income ratio of 42%.

 

12.8

When compared to those without a disability, persons with a disability had a slightly higher rate of being single (32% vs. 38%), a substantially lower marriage rate (60% vs. 41%) and a substantially higher rate of being widowed (7% vs. 19%). However, the proportion of those with a disability having children (64%) was similar to persons without a disability (66%). Those with mental disability (i.e., mental illness and mental retardation) were more likely than those with physical disability (i.e., blindness, deaf and physical disability) to remain single.

 

12.9

There were evidences of economic inequality against households having members with a disability. The median domestic household income for households having members with a disability was slightly lower than that of households having no member with a disability. The median household size for the former was 5, which was larger than the latter, suggesting available expenditure per person for the former was smaller than the latter. About 26.5% of those households having members with a disability would be classified as living below the poverty line, whereas only 18% of those households having no member with a disability would be described as living below the poverty.

 

 

 

13.

Gender and Disability

 

13.1

This part shows how literacy rate, educational attainment, labour force participation and income differed between men and women with a disability. All analyses were computed according to the sex by disability cross-tabulation tables which are based on the full data-set of the 1981 Census.

 

13.2

The overall literacy rate for women with a disability (41.3%) was substantially lower than women without a disability (74.8%) and men with a disability (74.4%), who also had a lower literacy rate than men without a disability (92.6%). The gender literacy equality indexes for persons with and without a disability were respectively .56 and .81, indicating persons with a disability experiencing more severe gender inequality against women in the literacy rate. Gender inequality against women was most severe for those with blindness (.41) and least severe for women with mental retardation (.81).

 

13.3

Regarding full-time enrolment beyond kindergarten for persons aged 6 to 23 and had a disability, the overall disability equality indexes were .63 for men and .67 for women, suggesting that both men and women with a disability experienced a similar amount of inequality against them as compared to those without a disability. The overall gender equality indexes for persons with and without a disability were respectively 1.00 and 1.06, indicating disability status did not affect gender equality in full-time enrolment beyond kindergarten.

 

13.4

Persons with a disability had a very low rate for full-time enrolment in tertiary education, being .9% for men and 1.11% for women. The overall disability tertiary enrolment indexes were .22 for men and .36 for women with a disability, suggesting that both men and women with a disability experienced serious disability inequality in full-time tertiary enrolment. However, the gender inequality index for persons with a disability (1.16) was higher than those without a disability (.71), which showed that gender inequality was more serious among persons without a disability than those with a disability in tertiary education enrolment.

 

13.5

An educational attainment index is the weighted average of adult literacy rate for people aged 15 or above (2/3 weight) and full-time enrolment ratio for people aged 6 and 23 (1/3 weight). The educational attainment indexes were respectively .40 and .62 for women and men with a disability, as compared to .69 and .81 for women and men without a disability. In other words, being a woman and with a disability faces a double jeopardy in educational attainment, particularly in the area of adult literacy rate.

 

13.6

The labour force participation rates for persons with a disability were 42.9% for men and 22.1% for women, which were also substantially lower than men (82.9%) and women without a disability (49.8%). Among the different disability groups, men with deafness (51.6%) and women with mental retardation (29.6%) had the highest labour force participation rates.

 

13.7

The employment rates were similar for men and women with a disability (67.3% and 61.2%, respectively). Regardless of gender, the rates were highest among those with deafness and lowest among those with mental illness. Gender inequality against women in employment rates for persons with a disability was also larger than those without a disability. Gender differences in the percentages of men and women employed in different occupations and industries were comparable between persons with and without a disability.

 

13.8

In general, persons with a disability earned less than those without a disability. However, men with blindness working as professionals, associate professionals, managers and administrators, women with blindness and with mental retardation in the clerical and related occupations, and women with deafness in the agricultural and related occupations earned more than same-gender persons who were without a disability and worked in similar occupations.

 

13.9

For persons with a disability, men also typically earned more than women across different occupations and industries. Exceptions were found in the professionals/ associate professionals/managerial occupations and the financing and related industry where women with a disability earned more than men with a disability.

 

13.10

Persons with a disability experienced relatively less gender inequality in income than those without a disability. For every dollar a man with a disability earned, a woman with a disability earned 72.7 cents. However, a woman without a disability earned only 64.7 cents for every dollar a man without a disability earned. Executive Summary