WASHINGTON — Laws designed to ensure equal economic opportunities for women are only half-enforced on average across the world, indicating that the barriers that keep women from contributing fully to growth and prosperity are far steeper than previously thought, according to a new report from the World Bank Group. Even if the laws were fully enforced, women would still enjoy barely two-thirds of the legal rights of men.
For the first time, the latest Women, Business and the Law report assesses not only the degree of equality in laws on the books, but also the extent to which those laws are enforced. Legal experts surveyed estimated that laws that encourage full economic participation by women are only half-enforced, indicating that governments have a long way to go. Even as they make progress in establishing new equal-opportunity laws, economies on average have in place fewer than half of the policies and services needed for enforcement. Only 4% of women across the world live in economies that provide nearly full legal equality. That is keeping economies from reaching their full potential to grow and create jobs.
“On paper, most countries are doing reasonably well: the average country scores 67 out of 100 on the adequacy of laws to enable economic equality between women and men,” said Indermit Gill, the World Bank Group’s Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Development Economics. “But when it comes to enforcing the laws, the average score drops to 53. And when the systems needed to implement those rights are assessed, the adequacy score is just 47. These numbers reflect huge opportunity gaps— and the findings of this report provide policymakers with intelligence to reverse the decline in the growth potential of developing economies.”
Women, Business, and the Law assesses the global state of women’s economic participation across 10 key areas, including safety from violence, access to childcare, entrepreneurship, employment protections, asset ownership, and retirement security. It identifies safety from violence as a key shortcoming, leaving women less able to work consistently. “True equality begins with safety. Whether at home, at work, or in public, women deserve protection to thrive,” said Norman Loayza, Director of the World Bank’s Policy Indicators Group. “Globally, we’re falling short. We have only a third of the safety laws we need, and even then, enforcement is failing 80% of the time.”
Tea Trumbic, Manager for the Women, Business and the Law project and the report’s lead author, said: “Over the next decade, 1.2 billion young people—half of them girls—will enter the workforce. Many will come of age in regions where women face the biggest barriers, and where the GDP boost that would result from their participation is most needed. Ensuring equal opportunity for women here—and everywhere—benefits societies as a whole, not just women. It’s an economic must-have, in short, not just a nice-to-have.”
Entrepreneurship is another low-scoring area, the report finds. Although women can start businesses on the same legal terms as men in nearly all economies, only about half promote equal access to credit, leaving women entrepreneurs locked out of financing.
Childcare is a crucial opportunity for policymakers. Affordable, reliable childcare tends to be one of the strongest predictors of whether parents—particularly mothers—can work or move into higher-productivityjobs. Yet less than half of the 190 economies covered in the report have laws providing financial or tax support for families. Among those, only 30% of policies needed to support affordable and high-quality childcare services are in place. In low-income economies, just 1% of childcare support mechanisms are in place.
Despite these conditions, progress is occurring with respect to equal-opportunity laws on the books:
• Over the past two years, 68 economies have enacted 113 positive legal reforms across most areas of women’s economic life, with the greatest progress in entrepreneurship and safety from violence. Seven countries also expanded paternity leave to help redistribute caregiving and support women’s employment.
• Sub-Saharan Africa implemented 33 reforms over the past two years, the largest number of any region. Madagascar and Somalia lifted prohibitions on women working in sectors such as construction, manufacturing, and agriculture.
•Egypt, Jordan, and Oman made progress. Egypt was the world’s top reformer over the past two years, increasing its legal equality score by nearly 10 points. Recent reforms extended paid parental leave from 90 to 120 days for mothers and introduced one day of paid leave for fathers, mandated equal pay, and allowed requests for flexible work arrangements.
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