WUNRN
WOMEN’S PROSPECTS LIMITED BY LAW IN 155 COUNTRIES, FINDS
WORLD BANK STUDY
Two decades after
Beijing declaration on gender equality, women’s economic opportunities and
working rights still widely subject to restrictive legislation
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WORLD BANK GLOBAL REPORT
Direct Link to Full 272-Page 2016 Report: http://wbl.worldbank.org/~/media/WBG/WBL/Documents/Reports/2016/Women-Business-and-the-Law-2016.pdf
Women, Business and the Law
2016: Getting to Equal
Getting
to Equal measures legal and regulatory barriers to women’s
entrepreneurship and employment in 173 economies. It provides quantitative
measures of laws and regulations that affect women’s economic opportunities in
seven areas: accessing institutions, using property, getting a job, providing
incentives to work, going to court, building credit and protecting women from
violence.
DESPITE PROGRESS, LAWS
RESTRICTING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY FOR WOMEN ARE WIDESPREAD GLOBAL
Violence and lack of jobs are
amongst key barriers for women in developing countries
WASHINGTON,
September 9, 2015 – Legal barriers to the economic advancement of
women are widespread, shutting them out of certain jobs, limiting their access
to credit, and leaving them unprotected against violence in many economies
around the world, says the World Bank Group’s Women, Business and
the Law 2016 report, released today.
The
report, which examines laws that impede women’s employment and
entrepreneurship, finds that women face job restrictions in 100 of the 173
economies monitored. For example, women are barred from working in certain
factory jobs in 41 economies; in 29 economies they are prohibited from working
at night; and in 18 economies they cannot get a job without permission from
their husband. Only half of the economies covered have paternity leave, and
less than a third have parental leave, limiting men’s ability to share
childcare responsibilities. In 30 economies, married women cannot choose where
to live and in 19 they are legally obligated to obey their husbands.
These
and a range of other disparities monitored by the report have far-reaching
consequences, negatively affecting not only women themselves, but their
children, their communities, and their countries’ economies. The report counts
nearly 950 instances of gender inequality, under 7 indicators.
“It is a grave injustice when societies place legal restrictions
on women’s ability to get a job, or participate in economic life. Women – like
men – deserve every opportunity to fulfill their potential, no matter where
they live. These restrictions are also bad economics. Women represent over half
the world’s population. We can’t afford to leave their potential untapped –
whether because laws fail to protect women against violence, or exclude them
from financial opportunities, property ownership or professions,” said World
Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. “When women can work, manage
incomes and run businesses, the benefits extend far beyond the individual level
– to children, communities and entire economies. We will not rest until women
have full economic rights everywhere.”
Lower
gender legal equality is associated with fewer girls attending secondary
schools, fewer women working or running businesses, and a higher gender wage
gap. Where laws do not provide protection from domestic violence, women are
likely to have shorter life spans. But where governments support childcare,
women are more likely to be employed.
"It’s highly significant that while almost every country on
earth testifies that women should not face discrimination, invariably in
practice women do, although the extent varies greatly. By carefully gathering
evidence from around the world on the real state of economic life, we can see
clearly how women face numerous restrictions in the workplace and how removing
these can unleash energy and growth. It is heartening to see that some
countries, such as Kenya, are pushing ahead with reforms to level the playing
field,” saidKaushik Basu, World Bank Chief Economist and Senior Vice
President. “I hope this report will motivate governments everywhere
to treat men and women equally in the workforce and help to achieve a
collective ambition of countries and a world without extreme poverty and with
opportunity for all.”
The
report finds that 18 economies have no legal restrictions on women in the areas
examined. They are: Armenia; Canada; Dominican Republic; Estonia; Hungary;
Kosovo; Malta; Mexico; Namibia; Netherlands; New Zealand; Peru; Puerto Rico;
Serbia, Slovak Republic; South Africa; Spain; and Taiwan, China.
Under
the theme of Getting to Equal, the report finds that, in the
past two years, most of the reforms leveling the playing field for women took
place in developing economies. In terms of regions, 19 reforms were enacted in
Europe and Central Asia, 18 in Sub-Saharan Africa, 16 in Latin America and the
Caribbean, 12 in the Middle East and North Africa and 11 in East Asia and the
Pacific. South Asia enacted the fewest reforms, with 3.
In
high-income Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
economies, where women enjoy broad-based equality, efforts to promote women’s
economic opportunities continued, with 12 economies enacting 15 reforms in the
past two years.
The
report also finds that laws protecting women from domestic violence are
becoming more common around the world, partially in response to growing
international efforts and commitments on violence against women. Today, 127
economies have legislation against domestic violence, compared to almost none
25 years ago. Yet, that leaves 46 economies among the ones measured that still
do not have these legal protections.
“Despite the advances, inequalities persist. In the past two
years, only 4 economies (Croatia, Hungary, Kenya and Nicaragua) have reformed
laws improving women’s property rights and 2 economies (Egypt and Mozambique)
have enacted laws to protect girls from sexual harassment in schools, to
facilitate their getting secondary education,” saidAugusto
Lopez-Claros, Director of the World Bank’s Global Indicators Group,which
produces the report.
“Such examples point to a large unfinished agenda of reforms
that will benefit not only women, but their families and communities as well,” added Lopez-Claros.
Indeed,
90 percent of economies monitored have at least one law that is discriminatory
towards women. The most pervasive gender disparities involve labor regulations,
which are different for men and women in all of the economies monitored by the
report. Some of these differences facilitate women’s workforce participation,
but many prevent it. The country with the most job-related barriers is Russia,
where a total of 456 jobs are out of bounds for women.
Women
in the Middle East and North Africa face the most wide-ranging
constraints that span all of the indicators covered by the report. Laws that
prohibit married women from becoming head of household, applying for a passport
or getting a job without permission from their husbands cut off entrepreneurship
and formal employment. The region is home to 11 of the world’s most restrictive
economies, namely Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iran, Yemen, Iraq, Bahrain, the United
Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, Syria, Qatar, and Kuwait. Along with Afghanistan,
Sudan, Mauritania and Brunei, these are the 15 most restrictive economies in
terms of women’s ability to work or establish a business, as measured by the
report.
Barriers
to women’s economic advancement are also rife in South Asia, which
lags behind other regions in undertaking reforms to promote greater gender
equality. In the past two years, only 3 reforms have been enacted in two of the
region’s economies.
Sub-Saharan Africa saw a robust pace of reform
efforts, with 18 reforms enacted in the past two years. The region hosts almost
a third of the world’s 30 most restrictive economies, but also two of the
world’s 18 economies with no gender barriers.
In Latin
America and the Caribbean, reform activity continued and almost all of the
region’s economies now have laws providing women protection against domestic
violence, but implementation remains a challenge. And many restrictions on
employment opportunities continue.
Europe and Central Asia stands out as one of the
most advanced regions in terms of property rights, access to credit as well as
maternity and paternity leave. However, labor laws continue to keep women out
of many jobs unnecessarily.
In
the East Asia and Pacific region, substantial gains have been
made towards women’s economic inclusion, including through labor legislation.
Economies in the region also show innovative access to credit and tax policies
to support women’s economic opportunities.
“While laws cannot guarantee equal treatment for women, they are
the first step towards creating an even playing field in which women have the
opportunity to thrive,” said Sarah Iqbal, lead
author of the report.
The
full report and accompanying datasets are available at http://wbl.worldbank.org/
About Women,
Business and the Law:
Women, Business and the Law measures how laws, regulations and institutions differentiate between women and men in ways that may affect women’s incentives or capacity to work or to set up and operate a business. It analyzes legal differences on the basis of gender in 173 economies, covering seven areas: accessing institutions, using property, getting a job, providing incentives to work, building credit, going to court and protecting women from violence. The report is published every two years.