Gender Equality Through Data Equality, A Conversation with Alison Holder, Director of Equal Measures 2030

In this episode of the Champions for Social Good Podcast, Jamie Serino speaks with Alison Holder (@alieholder), Director of Equal Measures 2030 (@equal2030), a civil society and private sector-led initiative working to harness the power of data and evidence to create change for gender equality. In many cases, women are disadvantaged and even “invisible” because of how information is collected and data is analyzed. Alison discusses how the initiative brought together multiple organizations with overlapping missions including Plan International, ONE Campaign, KPMG, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Women Deliver, Data2X, ARROW in Asia, FEMNET in Africa, and more. The organizations have pulled together their resources to bring data to grassroots organizations to help them advocate to their governments for policies empowering women and girls. Alison explains that the biggest challenge the initiative faces is the lack of data that exists and the unfortunate gaps in gender data. As an example, Alison cites an Australian census survey in which employment is framed as “working outside the home” or being a “housewife,” not taking into account the economic contributions of women who stay at home taking care of the household and/or children. Whether it has been through poor data or biased data, Equal Measures 2030 plans to change that, thus providing a framework for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. 

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