“While much remains to be done to achieve full equality of economic opportunity … this legislation is a significant step forward,” President John F. Kennedy said in 1963 when he signed the Equal Pay Act, a bill intended to ensure that women and men are paid equally for the doing the same work for the same employer. Fifty years later, the White House’s National Equal Pay Task Force has issued a report examining the many advances women have made since 1963 and the economic inequalities that persist.

Do you have a sewing machine? Do you have a blender? These are not questions you would hear from a mortgage broker if you were trying to qualify for a home mortgage loan. But surprisingly, they are questions that give us insight into household wealth in countries like India and Peru.