Women not legally and economically on par with men, World Bank report says

By Aaron Humes: Despite Beyonce’s 2011 song title, girls don’t run the world, according to the World Bank.

A new report finds that globally, women have barely three-quarters of the legal rights afforded to men, and 2.4 billion or so women of working age do not have equal economic opportunity. In at least 178 countries, there are legal barriers preventing full economic participation; in 86 countries, women are restricted from participating in some jobs, and in 95 countries, there is no guarantee of equal pay for equal work.

The World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law 2022 report notes, however, that despite the disproportionate effect on women’s lives and livelihood from the global pandemic, 23 countries reformed their laws in 2021 to take much-needed steps towards advancing women’s economic inclusion.

“While progress has been made, the gap between men’s and women’s expected lifetime earnings globally is US$172 trillion – nearly two times the world’s annual GDP,” said Mari Pangestu, World Bank Managing Director of Development Policy and Partnerships. “As we move forward to achieve green, resilient and inclusive development, governments need to accelerate the pace of legal reforms so that women can realize their full potential and benefit fully and equally.”

Women, Business and the Law 2022 measures laws and regulations across 190 countries in eight areas impacting women’s economic participation – mobility, workplace, pay, marriage, parenthood, entrepreneurship, assets, and pensions. The data offer objective and measurable benchmarks for global progress toward gender equality. Just 12 countries, all part of the OECD, have legal gender parity. New this year is a 95-country pilot survey of laws governing child care – a critical area where support is needed for women to succeed in paid employment. A pilot analysis of how laws affecting women’s economic empowerment are actually implemented is also included, highlighting the difference between laws on the books and the reality experienced by women.

The Middle East and North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa regions showed the largest improvements in the WBL Index in 2021, though they continue to lag behind other parts of the world overall. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the parity index was less than three-quarters of the legal rights of men. Two of the region’s 32 economies enacted reforms in the past year. Argentina explicitly accounted for periods of absence due to childcare in pension benefits. Colombia became the first country in Latin America to introduce paid parental leave, aiming to reduce discrimination against women in the workplace. Only half of the economies in the region guarantee any paid leave for fathers.

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