Source: The Guardian
Study highlights enduring discrimination in areas ranging from land and inheritance rights to politics and social justice.

Roughly 16% of girls in poor countries between the ages of 15 and 19 are married, suggesting that discriminatory beliefs and practices continue to undermine women's rights globally, according to the latest gender index.

Despite a worldwide decline in early marriage, the practice remains a huge issue. In countries like Niger, up to 60% of girls are married in their teens, according to the 2014 edition of the Social Institutions and Gender Index (Sigi), published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) development centre on Thursday.

The index, which draws data covering five key social-economic areas in 160 countries, including the 34 OECD states, also found that 102 countries still deny women rights over land. Just 55 states give women the same inheritance rights as men, while 35% of women believe domestic violence is justified in some circumstances. The Sigi, first published in 2009, also found that, globally, only one member of parliament in five is a woman. While female MPs account for more than 60% of the Rwandan parliament, Qatar and Yeman have none. In countries with quotas, such as Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, women occupy less than 10% of seats.

Unpaid care work, meanwhile, remains the preserve of women. On average, the amount of time spent on care work by women is three times greater than the equivalent time for men. At the extremes of the scale, women in Denmark spend 1.3 times longer than men on care work, while in Pakistan they spend 10 times longer.

Overall, countries in the Middle East and north Africa were the worst performing in this year's Sigi, with Yemen found to be the worst.

Sub-Saharan African countries also demonstrated high levels of discrimination. OECD countries have the lowest levels of male bias.

More than half of sub-Saharan African countries show high levels of discrimination across the five indices.

Five countries – Gambia, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Zambia – still have discriminatory laws. Women in Zambia require approval from a male head of household to open a bank account, and only 18% of women across sub-Saharan Africa have land titles.

Discriminatory social institutions have a "domino effect" on a woman's life cycle, said a report published to coincide with the index launch.

"The Sigi provides an evidence base showing that there is a strong association between discriminatory social institutions and key development outcomes, such as education, employment and empowerment. Discrimination against the girl child, such as early marriage, limits her education, increases her chances of adolescent pregnancy, and restricts her decision-making authority within the family and her ability to make informed choices about her income or her family's well-being," said the report's authors.

They added that the index highlights the critical need for a standalone gender equality target in the next set of development goals, and argued that legislative changes alone are not enough to bring long-term change. Eliminating discrimination requires sustained political will and investment together with community action.

"Future development goals, targets and interventions must take into account how discriminatory social institutions interlock and overlap throughout a woman's life and thus compound women's and girls' inability to break the cycle of inequality," said the report.

Federico Bonaglia, deputy director of the OECD development centre, said: "It is everyone's responsibility to change those norms and make gender equality a reality."

Ana Ines Abelenda, programme coordinator for economic justice and financing for women's rights at the Association for Women's Rights in Development, said: "Though some advances are evident in removing discriminatory social and legal barriers that fuel gender equality and prevent the fulfilment of women's human rights, for example the decrease in early marriages, progress is patchy and uneven. The level of backlash we are witnessing in recent episodes of violence against women around the world shows that implementation and changes in social norms are an ongoing struggle.

"Feminist movements have historically been behind transformations in discriminatory legislation and social norms and practices, and must be part of any accountability framework that overlooks implementation, including the post-2015 framework. Long-term funding for women's rights organising and movement-building – and not just quick fixes like access to microcredit for women – are key to fighting patriarchal and discriminatory practices fuelling gender inequality."

The index covers five areas – discriminatory family code, restricted physical integrity, son bias, restricted access to land and assets, and restricted civil liberties – which each have a subset of indices. For example, under discriminatory family code lies data on the legal age of marriage and parental rights in the case of divorce, while the index on physical integrity includes unmet need for family planning and female genital mutilation.

Although the index includes 160 countries, only 108 states have data for all categories.

•This article was amended on 2 December 2014. The original said sub-Saharan African countries performed the worst in the index. This has been changed.