On Equality and Olympic Medals
Toward the end of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics I wrote a post in which I observed that countries ranking higher in gender equality won more medals . My conscience nagged me, however, because medals won at the Winter Olympics is predicted by other things, such as latitude (northern countries dominate winter sports), wealth (richer countries have more resources for training), and population (larger countries have more people to win medals). So I collected more data : Medals won in both Summer 2012 and Winter 2014 Olympics Latitude Population Gross Domestic Product Income Inequality Gender Gap Score Regressions * on medals won (including countries that won none) showed that a country's gender equality** continued to significantly (p < .05) predict medals after controlling for latitude, population, GDP, and income inequality. Here are medals plotted by gender gap rank (lower ranks indicate more gender equality): Total Medals by Gender Gap Rank In addition, a country's g