The UNDP in its calculations of its gender equality indices even goes so far as to assume that due to biological advantages women will live on average five years longer than men, and the Global Gender Gap report uses a ratio of 1.06 as its benchmark for equality. This makes sense if gender equality is seen as a situation where men and women achieve equal development outcomes insofar as there are no sound biological reasons for them not to do so (for more information see Anand and Sen, 1993, Eskes and Haanen, 2007, and Austad, 2006). Women in this region have made especially great progress in life expectancy, leading to one of those instances where gender inequality now even reflects a disadvantage for men, although male life expectancy has not fallen in this region.