A gender inequality assessment by means of the Gini index decomposition

This paper proposes to measure and to evaluate gender gaps and gender inequalities by means of the decomposition of an inequality measure. A three-terms decomposition of the Gini index is applied, thus allowing to take into account also the role of overlapping between female and male subpopulations. An analysis of the income distribution of the Italian households shows how gender gaps represent a major source of inequality, without particular improvements over the last 20 years.