Men ‘face MORE discrimination than women’

Women are better off in more countries than men are, a new study has found.  

A method that assesses the forms of hardship and discrimination facing men and women has revealed males have it harder in 91 countries out of 134.

Women were disadvantaged in only 43. 

A study looked at 6.8 billion people around the world and scientists developed a new way of measuring gender inequality. 

The UK, the US and Australia all discriminate against men more whereas Italy, Israel and China are harder environments for women, according to the study. 

Researchers say this is due to men receiving harsher punishments for the same crime, compulsory military service and more occupational deaths than women. 

The study was carried out by the University of Essex and the University of Missouri-Columbia and published in the journal Plos One. 

Scientists created a database which deciphers a nation’s discrimination called the Basic Index of Gender Inequality (BIGI).

The closer the BIGI score is to zero the greater the level of equality is in the country. 

If it is a negative number it indicates females are better off and if the BIGI score is positive it shows males are less discriminated against.  

The index is based on three factors: educational opportunities, healthy life expectancy and overall life satisfaction.  

Professor Gijsbert Stoet, from the Department of Psychology at Essex, explained: ‘We’re not saying that women in highly developed countries are not experiencing disadvantages in some aspects of their lives. 

‘What we are saying is that an ideal measure of gender equality is not biased to the disadvantages of either gender. 

‘Doing so, we find a different picture to the one commonly presented in the media.’

Researchers found the most developed countries in the world come closest to achieving true gender equality but there was a slight advantage for women. 

Women in the least developed countries however, nearly always fall behind men.

The authors of the research say this is predominantly due to fewer opportunities to get a good education.

Nearly eight out of 10 companies and public sector bodies pay men more than women in the UK, a report from April 2018 found

There is an equal amount of nations with medium-level development that see men and women falling behind. 

On balance, they say, the men’s disadvantage is largely due to a shorter healthy lifespan.  

Professor David Geary, from the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri in the United States, added: ‘We sought to correct the bias towards women’s issues within existing measures and at the same time develop a simple measure that is useful in any country in the world, regardless of their level of economic development.’ 

The University of Essex, which performed the research, made headlines in 2016 when it gave female staff a one-off pay rise in order to close the gender pay gap. 

It moved female professors up three newly created pay levels to raise their average salaries to the same as their male counterparts.