Analyzing Individual Disadvantages alongside Household Poverty to Illuminate Gendered and Intrahousehold Disparities

Most poverty measures are generated at the household level and disregard gendered and intrahousehold inequalities even if individual level data exist. This paper provides a methodology for jointly analyzing individual disadvantages alongside household poverty status and composition. The illustration analyses deprivations in child nutrition and school attendance, and achievements of first generation learners, alongside multidimensional poverty status in seven South Asian countries, and monetary poverty status in Pakistan, finding significant gender disparities in school attendance. The general methodology the paper outlines can be used to illuminate gendered and intrahousehold disparities in individual disadvantage alongside any household poverty measures.

Citation: Alkire, S. and Ul Haq, R. (2025). ‘Analyzing individual disadvantages alongside household poverty to illuminate gendered and intrahousehold disparities’, OPHI Working Paper 146, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), University of Oxford.