Context:

• The World Inequality Report (WIR) 2026 by the World Inequality Lab, Paris School of Economics, and the UN report Counting What Counts (May 2026) examine inequality and gender disparities.
• However, both reports largely equate women’s economic status with labour market participation, while overlooking gender inequality in wealth and asset ownership, thereby underestimating the true extent of economic inequality.

The Missing Dimension - Gender Wealth Inequality:

• Both reports primarily assess women's economic status through employment, labour force participation and wage differentials.
• They neglect ownership of wealth and productive assets, despite devoting significant attention to household wealth inequality in general.
• This creates a misleading impression that wealth belongs to men while women are viewed mainly as labour providers. 

Why Wealth Ownership Matters?

• Improves social and human development outcomes:
  • Evidence from studies across the Global South (1994–2024) shows that when women own assets:
    • Child survival, nutrition, health and education outcomes improve significantly.
    • Women face a lower risk of domestic violence.
    • Asset ownership provides protection against poverty following marital breakdown.
  • Thus, women's ownership of assets contributes to welfare beyond what employment alone can achieve.
• Enhances productivity and economic growth:
  • Studies, including those compiled by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), show that giving women access to farmland, agricultural inputs, and productive assets can substantially increase -
    • Agricultural productivity.
    • National economic growth.
  • Asset ownership therefore has macroeconomic significance, not merely social value.
• Essential for livelihoods in the informal economy:
  • In developing countries, particularly India, most women work in the informal sector, where earnings depend on ownership of productive assets rather than wages.
  • Productive assets include agricultural land, livestock, farm equipment, street vending carts, and small business infrastructure.
  • Without ownership of such assets, women's earning capacity remains severely constrained.

Indian Scenario - Labour Without Assets:

• PLFS 2023–24 findings:
  • 86% of all women workers are employed informally.
  • 91% of rural women workers are in the informal sector.
  • 77% of rural women workers are engaged in agriculture.
  • 73% of rural women workers are self-employed, largely as unpaid family workers.
• Hence, only about 25% of rural women, and one-third of all women workers receive wage employment (regular or casual).
• For the rest (who are self-employed), asset ownership—not wages—is the primary determinant of sustainable income.

Persistent Gender Gap in Land Ownership:

• Despite women increasingly functioning as de facto farmers due to male migration, data (from NFHS, ICRISAT and IHDS) show women own land in only 12–16% of rural land-owning households.
• Lack of ownership limits access to institutional credit, investment decisions, productivity, and economic independence.

Limitations of Existing Measurement Approaches:

• Over-reliance on hourly earnings:
  • Both reports use the female-to-male hourly earnings ratio as the principal indicator of gender inequality.
  • This is inadequate because:
    • Most self-employed workers do not earn by the hour.
    • Farmers, shopkeepers and street vendors cannot meaningfully calculate hourly wages.
    • Annual earnings would provide a more realistic measure.
• Incomplete understanding of unpaid work:
• The reports largely equate unpaid work with the domestic chores and care work.
• They overlook women's unpaid productive work on family farms, household enterprises, and small businesses.
• This results in further underestimation of women's economic contribution.
• Ignoring wealth as a driver of inequality:
  • The WIR attributes lower female employment mainly to lack of affordable childcare, poor transport, inadequate family leave, and hiring discrimination.
  • While important, these explanations overlook asset ownership, even though research by the World Inequality Lab itself identifies inheritance as a major source of wealth inequality.
• Data unavailability - Not an adequate excuse:
  • The argument that wealth data by gender are unavailable is increasingly untenable.
  • Existing sources already provide:
    • Gender-wise pension wealth data in several developed countries.
    • Gender distribution among the richest 1%.
    • Gender-disaggregated land ownership data from the FAO and World Bank for many developing countries.
  • Moreover, the World Inequality Lab has successfully encouraged governments to improve wealth data collection.

Policy Priorities:

• Reducing gender inequality requires moving beyond labour-market reforms.
• Policy priorities should include:
  • Equal inheritance rights and implementation.
  • Expanding women's ownership of land and productive assets.
  • Improved access to credit through secure property rights.
  • Recognition of women as farmers and entrepreneurs.
  • Collection of gender-disaggregated wealth and asset data.
  • Policies addressing intra-household wealth inequalities, not merely household-level disparities.

Conclusion:

• Measuring gender inequality solely through employment and wages presents an incomplete picture of women's economic status.
• Wealth and productive asset ownership are fundamental determinants of empowerment, productivity, bargaining power and long-term economic security.
• A comprehensive approach to inequality must therefore integrate gendered wealth distribution alongside labour-market indicators, ensuring that women's role as owners of capital as well as contributors of labour is fully recognised.