Reforms have improved women’s economic inclusion but gaps remain – WBG study

Washington, U.S. (PANA) - Globally, women are accorded only three-quarters of the legal rights that men enjoy, according to a new index released by the World Bank on Wednesday, constraining their ability to get jobs or start businesses and make economic decisions that are best for them and their families. If women have equal opportunities to reach their full potential, the world would not only be fairer, it would be more prosperous as well, said World Bank Group Interim President Kristalina Georgieva. Change is happening, but not fast enough, and 2.7 billion women are still legally barred from having the same choice of jobs as men. It is paramount that we remove the barriers that hold women back, and with this report we aim to demonstrate that reforms are possible, and to accelerate change. The index, introduced in the study, Women, Business and the Law 2019: A Decade of Reform", looks at milestones in a woman's working life, from starting a job through to getting a pension, and legal protections associated with each of these stages. The data spans a ten-year period where 187 countries are scored according to eight indicators. Achieving gender equality is not a short-term process, requiring strong political will and a concerted effort by governments, civil society, international organizations among others, but legal and regulatory reforms can play a foundational role as an important first step. Progress over the last ten years in the areas measured by the index has been significant. During this time, the global average has risen from 70 to 75. According to the report, 131 economies have made 274 reforms to laws and regulations that improve women's economic inclusion; 35 countries implemented legal protections against sexual harassment at work, protecting nearly two billion more women than a decade ago. Another 22 economies removed restrictions on women's work, reducing the likelihood that women are kept out of working in certain sectors of the economy. And 13 economies introduced laws mandating equal remuneration for work of equal value. The study develops new insight into how women's employment and entrepreneurship are affected by legal discrimination, and in turn how this affects economic outcomes such as women's participation in the labour market. The new index aims to lay a roadmap for progress over time and identify potential areas where more work is needed, to inspire reforms that benefit gender equality. The report said Sub-Saharan Africa had the most reforms of any region with 71 over the past decade. Though this is in part due to the large number of economies in the region, it is also an indication of improvement from the baseline. More than half the reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa were in the areas of starting a job and getting married. Within each of these indicators, the biggest areas of improvement were on laws affecting gender-based violence. Five economies introduced laws on workplace sexual harassment and domestic violence. -0- PANA AR/VAO 27Feb2019