Field: Gender of the Individual
Description
Gender of the individual, as reported by the FRS respondent.
Classification
Gender is applicable to: all respondents.
Total number of categories: 2
Quality Statement
In any analysis of gender, it must be remembered that HBAI attempts to measure the living standards of an individual as determined by household income. This assumes that both partners in a couple benefit equally from the household's income, and will therefore appear at the same position in the income distribution. Any difference in figures can only be driven by gender differences for single adults, which will themselves be diluted by the figures for couples. The lower level gender disaggregation in the family type classification is therefore likely to be more informative.
Research has suggested that, particularly in low-income households, the above assumption with regard to income sharing is not always valid as men sometimes benefit at the expense of women from shared household income. This means that it is possible that HBAI results broken down by gender could understate differences between the two groups.
Further information can be found in the HBAI Quality and Methodology Report here.