Women, Business and the Law 2024 (English)

Table of Contents

• Front Cover 1
• Contents 5
• Foreword 11
• Acknowledgments 13
• Main Messages 15
• Executive Summary 19
• Abbreviations 41
• Chapter 1 Tracking Progress on Women’s Legal Rights 43
• Annex 1A Summaries of Reforms 57
• Chapter 2 Introducing Women, Business and the Law 2.0: Toward Better Measurement of Laws, Policies, and Practices 61
• Annex 2A Women, Business and the Law 2.0 questions 97
• Chapter 3 Women, Business and the Law 2.0: Trends Emerging from Data Analysis of New Measurements 107
• Annex 3A Women, Business and the Law 1.0 and 2.0 scores 137
• Appendix A Data Notes 145
• Boxes 20
• Box ES.1 From Women, Business and the Law 1.0 to Women, Business and the Law 2.0 20
• Box 1.1 About Women, Business and the Law 44
• Box 1.2 How Women, Business and the Law informs the World Bank’s 2024–30 Gender Strategy: Accelerate Gender Equality to End Poverty on a Livable Planet 45
• Box 2.1: Expert opinions questions: An example 93
• Box A.1: Assumptions used to ensure comparability 146
• Figures 21
• Figure ES.1: Women, Business and the Law 2.0 introduces new measurements to track global progress toward gender equality 21
• Figure ES.2: Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa show the largest gaps in WBL 2.0 legal frameworks scores, exceeding 60 points 23
• Figure ES.3: Safety, Entrepreneurship, and Childcare indicators have the largest legal gaps 24
• Figure ES.4: The lowest scores for supportive frameworks are in Sub-Saharan Africa, followed by the Middle East and North Africa 24
• Figure ES.5: The largest ranges in expert opinions scores are within the East Asia and Pacific and South Asia regions 25
• Figure ES.6: Economies with high scores on the WBL 1.0 legal index continue to have high scores on the WBL 2.0 legal index 27
• Figure ES.7: More gender-equal laws are associated with better supportive frameworks 28
• Figure ES.8: More gender-equal laws are associated with the perception of more rights for women in practice 30
• Figure ES.9: Supportive frameworks lag behind legal frameworks and expert opinions scores across regions and income groups 31
• Figure ES.10: In 2022–23, 18 economies enacted reforms across all Women, Business and the Law 1.0 indicators 32
• Figure B1.1.1 The eight Women, Business and the Law 1.0 indicators 44
• Figure 1.1 The largest legal gaps are in the Middle East and North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa 48
• Figure 1.2 Gaps in scores of more than 60 points are found across all income groups 49
• Figure 1.3 Most reforms were undertaken in Sub-Saharan Africa and low-income economies 50
• Figure 1.4 In 2022–23, 18 economies enacted reforms across all Women, Business and the Law 1.0 indicators 53
• Figure 2.1 Women, Business and the Law 2.0 introduces new measurements to track global progress toward Gender equality 62
• Figure 2.2: Safety legal frameworks questions examine laws on child marriage, sexual harassment, domestic violence, and femicide 67
• Figure 2.3: Childcare legal frameworks questions examine laws governing the provision of center-based childcare services 70
• Figure 2.4: Mobility legal frameworks questions examine laws affecting women’s agency and freedom of movement 71
• Figure 2.5: Workplace legal frameworks questions examine laws affecting women’s decisions to work 72
• Figure 2.6: Pay legal frameworks questions examine laws affecting the gender wage gap 73
• Figure 2.7: Marriage legal frameworks questions examine constraints in marriage and divorce 74
• Figure 2.8: Parenthood legal frameworks questions examine paid leave policies and protections for pregnant workers 75
• Figure 2.9: Entrepreneurship legal frameworks questions examine legal constraints on women’s abilities to start and run a business 76
• Figure 2.10: Assets legal frameworks questions examine gender differences in property and inheritance laws 78
• Figure 2.11: Pension legal frameworks questions examine laws affecting the size of a woman’s pension 79
• Figure 2.12: Safety supportive frameworks questions examine mechanisms implementing laws on child marriage, sexual harassment, domestic violence, and femicide 82
• Figure 2.13: Mobility supportive frameworks questions examine bureaucratic barriers to women’s agency and freedom of movement 83
• Figure 2.14: Workplace supportive frameworks questions examine measures implementing laws affecting women’s decisions to work 84
• Figure 2.15: Pay supportive frameworks questions examine measures implementing laws affecting women’s pay 85
• Figure 2.16: Marriage supportive frameworks questions examine courts and procedures in family law 86
• Figure 2.17: Parenthood supportive frameworks questions examine measures implementing laws affecting women’s work upon the birth of a child 87
• Figure 2.18: Childcare supportive frameworks questions examine mechanisms implementing childcare laws 88
• Figure 2.19: Entrepreneurship supportive frameworks questions examine programs and data supporting female entrepreneurs 89
• Figure 2.20: Assets supportive frameworks questions examine mechanisms and data to implement women’s property and inheritance rights 90
• Figure 2.21: Pension supportive frameworks questions examine policies aimed at reducing the gender pension gap 91
• Figure 2.22: Pathway to the new Women, Business and the Law 2.0 index 96
• Figure 3.1: The new Women, Business and the Law 2.0 approach goes beyond laws 108
• Figure 3.2: Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa have the largest gaps in WBL 2.0 legal frameworks scores, exceeding 60 points 110
• Figure 3.3: Gaps in WBL 2.0 legal frameworks scores exceed 60 points across all income groups 111
• Figure 3.4: Safety, Entrepreneurship, and Childcare indicators have the largest legal gaps 112
• Figure 3.5: Economies with high scores on the WBL 1.0 legal index continue to have high scores on the WBL 2.0 legal index 114
• Figure 3.6: Scores across regions and income groups are lower on the WBL 2.0 legal index than on the WBL 1.0 legal index 115
• Figure 3.7: The lowest scores for supportive frameworks are in Sub-Saharan Africa, followed by the Middle East and North Africa 118
• Figure 3.8: The adoption of supportive frameworks varies most in high-income economies 118
• Figure 3.9: Globally, the most supportive frameworks are in place for Mobility and the fewest for Workplace 119
• Figure 3.10: All regions and income groups lack the supportive frameworks needed to protect women’s rights 121
• Figure 3.11: For nearly all indicators, there is a substantial gap between the legal and supportive frameworks scores 122
• Figure 3.12: The largest ranges in expert opinions scores are within the East Asia and Pacific and South Asia regions 124
• Figure 3.13: There is a 31-point difference in average expert opinions scores on women’s rights in practice between low- and high-income groups 125
• Figure 3.14: The Pension indicator receives the highest score and Safety the lowest score from the experts 126
• Figure 3.15: Experts in the Middle East and North Africa, East Asia and Pacific, and high-income economies perceive more women’s rights in practice than the legal frameworks suggest 127
• Figure 3.16: Experts’ assessment of women’s rights in practice are different than the legal frameworks suggest 128
• Figure 3.17: More gender-equal laws are associated with better supportive frameworks 130
• Figure 3.18: More gender-equal laws are associated with the perception of more rights for women in practice 133
• Figure 3.19: Supportive frameworks lag behind legal frameworks and expert opinions scores across regions and income groups 136
• Maps 109
• Map 3.1: Women have less than two-thirds of the legal rights of men under the new index 109
• Map 3.2: Globally, two-fifths of supportive frameworks are in place to implement gender-equal laws 117
• Map 3.3: Experts’ perceptions: Two-thirds of women enjoy rights equal to those of men 124
• Tables 22
• Table ES.1 Introducing the 10 indicators of Women, Business and the Law 2.0: Toward better measurement of laws, policies, and practices 22
• Table ES.A.1 Women, Business and the Law 2.0 questions 33
• Table ES.B.1 Women, Business and the Law 1.0 and 2.0 scores 35
• Table 1.1 Women, Business and the Law 2024 score (WBL 1.0) 47
• Table 1.2 Five economies advanced the most toward gender equality since October 2022 50
• Table 1.3 In 2022–23, economies implemented the highest number of reforms to improve gender equality in the Parenthood indicator 54
• Table 2.1 Introducing the 10 indicators of Women, Business and the Law 2.0: Toward better measurement of laws, policies, and practices 63
• Table 2.2 Fifty-nine economies prohibit women from performing certain tasks in industrial jobs 73
• Table 2.3 Women, Business and the Law 2.0 measures various categories of supportive frameworks 80
• Table 2.4 Expert opinions questions 94
• Table 2A.1 Women, Business and the Law 2.0 questions 97
• Table 3A.1: Women, Business and the Law 1.0 and 2.0 scores 137
• Table A.1: Methodological strengths and limitations of the Women, Business and the Law indexes 148
• Table A.2: Women, Business and the Law 1.0 indicators and questions 150
• Table A.3: Women, Business and the Law 2.0 legal frameworks indicators and questions 158
• Table A.4: Women, Business and the Law 2.0 supportive frameworks indicators and questions 169
• Table A.5: Women, Business and the Law 2.0 expert opinions indicators and questions 177