See related Call for Papers in Data & Policy (deadline: 9 January 2026)

In 2022, UN Women estimated that it would take 22 years to close the gender data gap to adequately assess the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By deepening the understanding of these constraints and by exploring potential solutions to enhance the collection of sex-disaggregated data and gender statistics, existing and emerging challenges contributing to these data gaps can be tackled.

The collection, accessibility, and use of sex- and gender-disaggregated data (S/GDD) can contribute to understanding and addressing inequalities in evidence-informed policymaking at local, national, transnational, and international levels. The absence of such data disaggregation facilitates misrepresentations of sex- and gender-related realities in public policy and academic research, from medicine to social sciences.

Both globally and regionally, national practices of S/GDD collection, accessibility, and use differ (Figure 1).

This variation is the result of different production pathways to sex-related statistics and gender data in national statistical systems and of other data providers.[i] S/GDD collection and publication can follow very different data pathways, based on legal, policy, operational criteria and actors involved in the process. This multilayered process emerges clearly from the UN Statistical Division Global Survey on Gender Statistics, whose preliminary results have been published in 2024[ii]. Some data providers already collect and/or use S/GDD for most of their indicators and analytical products. In some areas, like social security, S/GDD are yet not only collected less frequently, but they are also underused to produce gender statistics.

Considering the complexity to collect, produce and publish S/GDD, reducing the gap in sex-disaggregated statistics and gender data is not an easy task. It starts with official statistics producers that need to invest extensively in human resources and data governance for S/GDD. Moreover, independent, and private data providers and users need to be involved in new data collection practices to develop a structural monitoring and collection of sex-disaggregated and gender-related issues. In addition to this already demanding starting point, technical barriers, such as inadequate policy frameworks and limitations of public budgets, are further complicated by the current politicization of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.

To address and understand such barriers, the open access Data & Policy journal at Cambridge University Press is delighted to announce a call for papers for a special collection focused on the theme: ‘Counting what matters: The role of sex-disaggregated data and gender statistics in social policy’.

This special collection originates from the FEMETRICS project funded by the European University Institute’s Widening Europe Programme which was inspired by the idea of ‘Invisible Women’, as introduced by Caroline Criado Perez. The project was co-ordinated by Principal Investigators from the EUI’s Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, the Palacký University in Olomouc, and the University of Warsaw.

The project culminated in the ‘FEMETRICS Lab’ centred on the discussion of the impact of sex-related and gender data gaps. During the Lab, researchers addressed key issues of policy distortion based on the lack of S/GDD as well as misrepresentations of female and gender realities in society due to missing data. Furthermore, participatory data generation practices were discussed, emphasizing the relevance of data pathways, open data infrastructures, and collaborative data communities to enhance democratic data practices and improving social policy frameworks.

Based on these research insights, the D&P special collection seeks to fill the identified S/GDD gap by providing a platform to analyse and possibly tackle sex-disaggregated and gender data deficiencies. The goal of the special collection is threefold: First, it seeks to understand sex-disaggregated and gender data portfolios and data collection practices of  official statistics providers in both nation states and international organisations, such as the European Union (i.e. by EUROSTAT) or the United Nations (i.e. by the UN Statistics Division or agencies such as UN WOMEN). Additionally, alternative sources of S/GDD can be analysed. While the policy focus of the special collection gravitates towards social policies, individual contributions can focus on other policy areas of interest. Second, the special collection investigates the policy and legal spaces that underpin sex- and gender-disaggregated data management, i.e., data pathways. Third, the special collection aims to show how the gaps in sex-disaggregated and gender data availability and accessibility, as well as winding pathways to such data, impact the perception of everyday lives in policy-making, capturing or not individual well-being, sex-related social realities and gender identities in terms of political participation, equality before the law, health, education, freedom from violence, access to public finances, and more.

The special collection invites papers addressing a wide array of sex- and gender-disaggregated data topics at various levels of analysis, including local, national, regional, and transnational case studies. Contributions would primarily focus on exploring the quality of sex- and gender-disaggregated data used to design social policies, the structure and governance of said data, the significance of open access to these data, and the practices of data sharing in policy-making in the interest of the public good. Contributions on other policy areas relevant to the special collection’s goals beyond social policy will be considered as well.

Submission details:

Full submissions (9^th January 2026) should be submitted through the Data & Policy ScholarOne site, using the special collection tag when prompted.

Templates for full papers and other pertinent details are on the Data & Policy Instructions for Authors.

About the special collection editors

Gaby Umbach, Part-time Professor, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Data & Policy Advisory Board

Bogna Kietlińska-Radwańska, Assistant Professor, Institute of Applied Social Sciences, University of Warsaw

Jaromir Harmáček, Associate Professor at the Department of Development and Environmental Studies, Faculty of Science, Palacký University Olomouc

1. Based on research conducted within the FEMETRICS projects prepared by Petra Krylova, Carmen Ramírez Folch, Mira Manini Tiwari, Raffaele Ventura, Gaby Umbach, Bogna Kietlińska-Radwańska, and Jaromir Harmáček.
2. The methodology to assess the openness and accessibility of gender data can be found here.
3. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Statistics Division (2016): Integrating a Gender Perspective into Statistics. Available at https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/Standards-and-Methods/files/Handbooks/gender/Integrating-a-Gender-Perspective-into-Statistics-E.pdf, (last access 28, July 2025).
4. The definition of gender statistics is provided by the UN Statistical Division as “statistics that adequately reflect differences and inequalities in the situation of women and men in all areas of life”. For additional information about the methodology on the survey here.