How do surveys measure inresectional inequalities: findings and recommendations

To what extent do existing survey measures capture intersecting dimensions of inequality? To answer this question, we collected and assessed the questions from the Eurobarometer (EB), the European Social Survey (ESS), the European Values Survey (EVS), and the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) that tap into the intersecting dimensions of inequality. We focused on the measures of social class, national origin, race/ethnicity, and impairment as well as respondents’ experiences with discrimination (unequal treatment) based on any of these characteristics. In total, we have reviewed the questionnaires from 23 waves of the EB, 10 waves of the ESS, 5 waves of the EVS, and 4 waves of the ISSP. Our study has identified that many gaps exist in measuring intersectional inequalities in surveys. Rectifying these gaps is important to advance our knowledge and empirical analysis of persistent intersectional inequalities.