The latest “Women, Business and the Law” report found that while many countries have enacted reforms on paper, enforcement gaps remain wide, limiting women’s ability to participate fully in the economy.
Only four percent of women globally live in economies that provide nearly full legal equality. Even if existing laws were fully enforced, women would still enjoy barely two-thirds of the legal rights granted to men, the report said.
For the first time, the study measures not only the quality of legislation but also its effectiveness in practice. Legal experts surveyed estimated that laws supporting women’s full economic participation are enforced at roughly 50 percent of their intended level.
On average, economies have in place fewer than half of the policies and institutional mechanisms required to ensure proper implementation.
“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 chief economist and senior vice president for development economics at the World Bank Group.
“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,” Gill added.
The report evaluates women’s economic participation across 10 areas, including protection from violence, childcare, entrepreneurship, employment protections, asset ownership, and retirement security.
Safety from violence remains a major constraint on women’s economic activity. “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 percent of the time,” Loayza added.
Demographic trends underscore the urgency of reform. “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,” Tea Trumbic, manager for the Women, Business and the Law project and the report’s lead author, said.
Entrepreneurship remains another weak area. Although women can start businesses on equal legal terms with men in most economies, only about half of these economies ensure equal access to credit, thereby restricting financing options for women-led enterprises.
Childcare policy also presents significant gaps. Affordable and reliable childcare is a key determinant of whether parents, particularly mothers, can enter or remain in the labour force.
Yet fewer than half of the 190 economies covered by the report provide financial or tax support for families. Among those, only 30 percent of the necessary policies to guarantee affordable, high-quality childcare services are in place. In low-income economies, just one percent of childcare support mechanisms exist.
Despite enforcement shortcomings, the report notes progress in legal reforms over the past two years. A total of 68 economies enacted 113 positive legal reforms, particularly in entrepreneurship and protection from violence. Seven countries expanded paternity leave to promote shared caregiving responsibilities.
Sub-Saharan Africa recorded 33 reforms, the highest number among regions. Madagascar and Somalia removed restrictions on women working in sectors such as construction, manufacturing, and agriculture.
In the Middle East and North Africa, Egypt, Jordan, and Oman introduced reforms.
Egypt was identified as the world’s top reformer over the past two years, raising its legal equality score by nearly 10 points. Recent measures extended paid parental leave for mothers from 90 to 120 days, introduced one day of paid leave for fathers, mandated equal pay, and allowed requests for flexible work arrangements.
The report concluded that closing enforcement gaps will be essential to unlocking untapped economic potential, particularly in developing economies seeking stronger and more inclusive growth.
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