Physical Integrity Sub-Index (0=no; 1=max inequality) by Country

This data is so badly flawed that it's deceptive. To illustrate, in the full dataset compare the scores for the United States and Kenya.

Kenya's score of .36 is the mean of the following four scores:

1. 38% of Kenya's women have undergone genital mutilation.

2. A 22% score for missing women, which appears to be calculated like this: Afghanistan has the greatest percentage difference between the number of women that should be living, and those that actually are living. In part, this difference is explained by abortion for sexual selection. Afghanistan was given a score of 1. Kenya appears to have 22% of Afghanistan's percentage of missing women.

3. 67.9% of women in Kenya agree that it's okay for their husbands to beat them for burned food, arguing with their husbands, going out without telling their husbands, and so on.

4. .17, is an arbitrary score that "quantifies" the existence of laws specifically protecting women from domestic violence, sexual assault, and harassment. A score of 0 is best and a score of 100% is worst.

Kenya's score is the average of these four numbers, or .36.

The US's score is calculated from:

1. 0% genital mutilation.
2. 0% missing women.
3. NA (US women weren't asked whether it's okay for their husbands to beat them.)
4. .33 for the US's score for laws protecting women.

The average of 0, 0, and .33 is .11.

Now, let's compare the logic of these two averages:

Compare the #4 scores for Kenya and the US. The Kenya score is twice as good as the US score. This score says that even though one-third of Kenya's women have been mutilated, even though a large percentage of their women are missing (killed), even though two-thirds think it's okay for their husbands to beat them, Kenya's laws protecting women are twice as good as the laws in the US.

Similarly, the Bangladesh score for protective laws is twice as good as Kenya's, and four times as good the US score. Their percentage of missing women is 45% as bad as Afghanistan's, roughly twice that of Kenya. Although Bangladesh is 88% Muslim (according to http://www.factbook.net/mus...), this data sets genital mutilation at 0%. You can believe that percentage if you want.

Notice that the scores aren't weighted. Therefore, Kenya would have the same score as the US has if...

1. "only" 20% of its women were genitally mutilated.
2. "only" 14% of Afghanistan's percentage of missing women were missing in Kenya.
3. "only" 10% of Kenya's women agreed that beating is okay.
4. Kenya passed whatever meaningless law is needed to bring its score in this category to 0.

According to the faulty logic of this data, these adjustments would give women in Kenya and the US equivalent "physical integrity." But I doubt that many women would agree that they or their daughters would be as safe in Kenya as in the US.

This data as presented is worse than meaningless; it's deceptive.