WORLD BANK GROUP GENDER THEMATIC POLICY NOTES SERIES: EVIDENCE AND PRACTICE NOTE ACCELERATING GENDER EQUALITY THROUGH REFORMING LEGAL FRAMEWORKS Marina Elefante, Tazeen Hasan, Marie Hyland, Natalia Mazoni Silva Martins and Tea Trumbic OVERVIEW This thematic note emphasizes the role of laws and regulations in safeguarding women’s economic opportunities, for the purpose of informing the update of the World Bank Group’s Gender Strategy. The note demonstrates the importance of legal gender equality and draws on data and analysis from the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law initiative and other evidence to explore legal barriers that hinder women’s economic participation and showcase successful reforms. It also offers examples of how World Bank projects have addressed legal frameworks toward gender equality and concludes with proposals for future areas of operational focus and research. Key messages: Evidence highlights that reforms of discriminatory laws are essential for • economic development. Women, Business and the Law data document progress toward legal equality between men and women, but this progress has been uneven across regions and over time. Globally, women are found to have just over three-quarters of the legal • rights afforded to men. Significant gaps and legal barriers remain in areas related to human capital accumulation, access to jobs, ownership of assets, and women’s voice and agency. Women, Business and the Law data and analysis have provided a • framework to identify entry points for reforms for strengthening gender equality. Specifically, World Bank projects have used Women, Business and the Law data and analysis to develop the analytical underpinnings for project design, identify key gender gaps in laws and regulations, support prior actions in development policy operations, set results targets, and inform reform recommendations. For continued progress in closing legal gender gaps globally, the World • Bank needs to focus on key sectoral priorities and critical areas of intervention based on sound analysis of Women, Business and the Law data and other evidence. Looking forward, some of the priorities include the implementation of • laws; availability, affordability, and quality of care services; women’s health and safety; gender inequalities in fragile and conflict situations; women with disabilities; women’s leadership; gendered tax policy and gender- sensitive climate policies. JUNE 2023 TABLE OF CONTENTS WHY GENDER EQUALITY IN THE LAW MATTERS 1 LEGAL BARRIERS TO WOMEN’S ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION 5 WHERE LAWS ARE CHANGING 9 HOW WORLD BANK OPERATIONS ADDRESS LEGAL FRAMEWORKS 14 TOWARD GENDER EQUALITY KEY RECOMMENDATIONS TO ADVANCE WOMEN’S LEGAL RIGHTS 17 Annex 20 References 22 This thematic policy note is part of a series that provides an analytical foundation for the update to the World Bank Group Gender Strategy (FY24–30). This series seeks to give a broad overview of the latest research and findings on gender equality outcomes and summarizes key thematic issues, evidence on promising solutions, operational good practices, and key areas for future engagement on promoting gender equality and empowerment. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work are entirely those of the author(s). They do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank Group or its Board of Directors. This note was written by Marina Elefante, Tazeen Hasan, Marie Hyland, Natalia Mazoni Silva Martins, and Tea Trumbic, who are affiliated with World Bank units for Development Economics, Women, Business and the Law, and Gender. The authors are grateful for the valuable support and peer review provided by World Bank Group colleagues Helle Buchhave, Francesca Daverio, Klaus Decker, Emelyne Calimoutou, Sabine Hertveldt, and Laura Rawlings. The authors would also like to thank Ariana Maria Del Grossi for her comments and Sundas Liaqat for her support in the final revisions. Leslie Ashby provided excellent editorial assistance. For more information, please contact ttrumbic@worldbank.org, thasan@worldbank.org, melefante@worldbank.org, mhyland@worldbank.org, or nmazoni@worldbank.org. 2 WHY GENDER EQUALITY IN THE LAW MATTERS A legal environment that supports women’s economic There is a significant and growing body of evidence participation is the foundation of more equal societies and suggesting that there are positive associations between more prosperous economies. The World Bank estimates legal equality and the accumulation of human capital. that, globally, the difference between men’s and women’s For example, research shows a link between equality total expected lifetime earnings is $172.3 trillion, equivalent and women’s educational attainment (Branisa et al. 2013; to twice the world gross domestic product (GDP) (Wodon Deininger et al. 2013 and 2019; Harari 2019; Roy 2015). There et al. 2020). Adopting laws that strengthen women’s rights is also evidence of a positive correlation between reforming and opportunities is an essential first step toward a more gender discriminatory laws and women’s health outcomes resilient and inclusive world. (Anderson 2018; Harari 2019), and other measures of human capital (Ali, Deininger, and Goldstein 2014). Recent research Since 2009, the World Bank’s Women, Business and the finds that domestic violence legislation is associated Law initiative has measured global progress toward gender with reduced mortality for women (Amin, Islam, and equality in 190 economies by identifying the laws and Lopez-Claros 2021), and that equality under the law can regulations that restrict and incentivize women’s economic accelerate the path to the convergence of income levels participation. Governments can use this data and analysis (Sever 2022). UN Women (2019) also highlights the need to to identify barriers to women’s success, remove them, and advance progress toward legal equality between men and boost economic inclusion. Looking across the four pillars of women, and the associated benefits for women’s health, the 2016-23 World Bank Group’s Gender Strategy—focusing education, and general well-being. The World Bank’s Africa on human capital, jobs, assets, and empowerment— Human Capital Plan2 also underscores the important reveals the range of positive outcomes associated with link between legal frameworks and gender for improving improvements in legal equality between women and men.1 human endowments. 1  ttps:/ h /www.worldbank.org/en/publication/worldbank-africa-human-capital-plan [Accessed: September 2, 2022] 2 https:/  /www.worldbank.org/en/publication/worldbank-africa-human-capital-plan [Accessed: September 2, 2022] 1 Empirical evidence establishes the link between legal equality and removing constraints for more and better jobs. For example, the positive association between legal equality and women’s participation in the workforce is well documented (Gonzales et al. 2015; Hallward-Driemeier, Hasan, and Rusu 2013; Hyland, Djankov and Goldberg 2020; Islam et al. 2018; Christopherson et al. 2022). Legal equality in the areas covered by Women, Business and the Law is associated with not just more women working, but with more women employed in the formal sector (Hyland, Djankov and Goldberg 2021) and women working in better jobs (i.e., those requiring higher skill levels, offering higher wages, or presenting an opportunity to manage others) (Hallward-Driemeier and Gajigo 2015; Islam et al. 2019). Heymann et al. (2022) highlight the importance of anti-sexual harassment laws in facilitating women’s participation in the economy and note that, while progress has been made, important gaps remain in terms of both legislation and implementation of laws. As Figure 1 illustrates, legal equality, as captured by the Women, Business and the Law index (WBL index), is positively correlated with the female labor supply, and negatively correlated with the gender wage gap. FIGURE 1. CORRELATION BETWEEN THE WBL INDEX AND WOMEN’S OUTCOMES IN THE LABOR MARKET Source: Women, Business and the Law 2020 report, World Bank Group 2020a. 2 Removing barriers to women’s ownership and control causality may plausibly run in either direction as research of assets is closely tied to legal reform. Evidence shows based on 159 developing economies demonstrates that that stronger property rights strengthen women’s intra- countries with greater female representation in parliament household bargaining power and decision making (Haldar are more likely to pass laws on sexual harassment, rape, and Stiglitz, 2013, 2016; Anderson 2018; Harari 2019; Heath divorce, and domestic violence (Asiedu et al. 2018). Of note and Tan 2020). Also related to the topic of legal equality is the example of Botswana, where women Members of and asset ownership, divorce legislation that does not Parliament (MPs) were instrumental in passing the 2008 discriminate against women has been shown to boost Domestic Violence Bill, the 2009 Children’s Bill, and the their ownership of assets (Voena 2015). Furthermore, better 2004 Abolition of Marital Power Act (Asiedu et al. 2018). legal frameworks that ensure legal equality for women are associated with more women entrepreneurs (Paoloni and Empirical evidence highlights that legal reform of Lombardi, 2020; Strawser, Hechavarría and Passerini, 2021). discriminatory law is essential for economic development. The correlation between the WBL index and the share Furthermore, granting women rights to services, such of women entrepreneurs in an economy is presented in as reproductive health, boosts women’s human capital Figure 2. and economic empowerment (Finlay and Lee 2018). The macroeconomic and developmental implications of reform Good legal frameworks are also crucial to enhancing are significant (European Institute for Gender Equality 2017; women’s voice and agency and engaging men and boys. Ostry et al. 2018; Christopherson et al. 2022; Fernandez et For example, data show a positive correlation between al. 2022), yet governments around the world have not been legal equality and women’s political representation able to reap the full benefits because reform is happening (Hyland, Djankov and Goldberg 2021). However, the too slowly and is at risk of deceleration. FIGURE 2. CORRELATION BETWEEN THE WBL INDEX AND THE SHARE OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS Source: Women, Business and the Law 2022 report, World Bank Group 2022. Available at: https://wbl.worldbank.org/en/reports 3 In 2022, Women, Business and the Law recorded 34 positive reforms across 18 economies—the lowest number of reforms since 2001. There is a risk that existing inequalities are exacerbated due to the multiple crises faced by modern societies, notably, the COVID-19 pandemic (De Paz Nieves, Gaddis and Muller 2021; Torres et al. 2021). Fabrizio et al. 2021 show that epidemics are more deleterious to the educational attainment of girls than boys. The COVID-19 crisis has also underscored the importance of childcare for closing gender gaps (Goldin 2021). Sidik (2022) points out that the COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated pre-existing inequalities in terms of income and health, and it has increased the prevalence of violence against women. This serves as a call to action for governments to reform laws that discriminate against women. It is also an important reminder that strong legal frameworks and justice systems need to be accessible to and protect the vulnerable in times of crisis. Even if laws are reformed, inadequate implementation and weak enforcement of laws can block women from the full realization of their rights. Analyzing the supportive frameworks that enable the implementation of such laws is key to fully understanding women’s realities around the world. Evidence of constitutional protections for core social and economic rights from around the world suggests that such protections, when coupled with guarantees of gender equality, can help women to realize equality in practice (Sprague, Heymann, and Raub 2022). Discriminatory social norms can also present a challenge to the effectiveness of legal reform. Evidence suggests that legal reforms may be ineffective in situations in which women face substantial cultural pressure not to seek legal recourse (Gedzi 2012). The interplay of pervasive social norms and legal pluralism may also pose a challenge to legal gender equality (Holden and Chaudhary 2013). Laws that are strongly in conflict with social norms may be difficult to enforce, and a gradual reform of laws may be more effective than sudden, large-scale reform (Acemoglu and Jackson 2016). Other evidence suggests, however, that legal reform can exert a positive influence on social norms (Aldashev et al.), and that laws and norms may be mutually reinforcing (Williamson and Kerekes 2011). Moreover, evidence from a group of low and middle- income economies showed that maternity leave policy is associated with increased decision-making power for women within their households and improved attitudes to women’s work (Chai et al. 2022). Taken together, this evidence highlights that the design of legal reform should make careful consideration of how cultural norms can influence or be influenced by new legislation. 4 LEGAL BARRIERS TO WOMEN’S ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION Amid development challenges that disproportionately Indicators for Parenthood and Pension point to gaps affect women, a legal environment that supports women’s in human capital accumulation. Social protection plays economic participation is crucial. Yet, nearly 2.4 billion a critical role in addressing vulnerability and fostering women still do not have the same legal rights as men. economic inclusion (World Bank 2015), which is key to Women, Business and the Law data provide a framework improve human endowments. Women, Business and the to identify gaps and entry points for reform. It uses eight Law collects data on important social protection measures, indicators structured around women’s interactions such as laws and regulations affecting women’s work after with the law as they progress through their lives and having children, including laws mandating paid leave careers: Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, policies for working parents measured by the Parenthood Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension. These indicators fit indicator. Among the eight Women, Business and the Law into three broad areas of research: labor and employment, indicators, Parenthood still has the lowest score despite family, and criminal law. improvements in the past five years (see Figure 3). The Women, Business and the Law 2023 report finds that Maternity protection is central to decent work, women’s the global average Women, Business and the Law score is productivity, and gender equality at work (ILO 2014). While 77.1 out of 100, indicating that a typical woman has just over the number of paid leave days granted to mothers increased three-quarters of the rights of men in the areas measured. substantially between 1970 and 2022 in all regions—and Data indicate the following opportunities for change along today, 118 economies guarantee the International Labor the four pillars of the World Bank Group Gender Strategy. Organization (ILO) standard of 14 weeks of paid maternity FIGURE 3. IMPROVEMENTS IN WOMEN, BUSINESS AND THE LAW SCORES OVER THE LAST FIVE YEARS, BY INDICATOR a. WBL average indicator scores, 2018 and 2023  hanges in WBL average indicator scores b. C over last five years Source: Women, Business and the Law database. 5 leave—the granting of paternity leave days has stagnated. Differences in women’s working lives relative to those Studies show that a smaller gap between mothers’ and of men can also result in unequal economic outcomes fathers’ leave is associated with a higher female labor force in retirement. Early retirement, for example, can widen participation rate, suggesting that women’s participation the potential gender gap in pension levels and increase in the workforce could be increased by shrinking the leave women’s risk of poverty in old age. The Pension indicator gap between parents (Hyland and Shen 2022). Globally, assesses laws affecting the size of a woman’s pension. 117 economies provide fathers with paid leave for the With an average score of 73.9, below the global average, birth of a child. Although a similar number of economies the Pension indicator identifies significant gaps affecting provide both maternity leave (118) and paternity leave women’s economic security after retirement. In 118 (117), the length of leave differs drastically, with an economies, there is room to improve laws to achieve average of 192.8 days for mothers and just 22.5 days for gender equality concerning women’s pensions. fathers. Women are disproportionately responsible for unpaid care work and paid paternity and parental leave The indicators for Pay, Workplace, and Entrepreneurship schemes can help recognize and redistribute unpaid reveal stubborn barriers to more and better jobs for household care responsibilities. women. Removing these constraints is central to the World Bank Group’s twin goals of eliminating extreme For example, in Colombia the average unemployment rate poverty and boosting shared prosperity (World Bank was 18.1 percent for women and 10.6 percent for men from 2015). Women, Business and the Law data highlight gaps June-August 2021 (World Bank, 2022b). A major contributing directly affecting women’s prospects as employees and factor to women’s high levels of unemployment is the entrepreneurs. The Pay indicator, for example, identifies disproportionate responsibility they have for household legal barriers affecting occupational segregation and the tasks and care work, particularly in rural areas. For example, gender wage gap. Women, Business and the Law finds that in 2017, 28.6 percent of women and 1.1 percent of men said laws in 119 economies could be improved in one of these that family reasons prevented them from looking for a job. aspects to reduce the gender pay gap. One of the most More recently, data collected through the World Bank high- common barriers is the lack of equal remuneration for frequency phone surveys in 2021 shows that 13 percent of men and women who perform work of equal value, which women reported experiencing unfair treatment at work is mandated in only 97 out of 190 economies. due to having children (World Bank, 2022). It is estimated that the potential economic losses over the long term Additionally, restrictions are often imposed on women’s due to gender gaps in Colombia’s labor market amount to employment. For example, women cannot work the same 17.6 percent in gross income per capita (Cuberes and night hours as men in 22 economies. They cannot work in Teignier, 2016). industrial jobs in the same way as men in 65 economies, 6 or in jobs deemed dangerous in 49 economies. Nine The Assets indicator shows uneven progress on removing economies impose all three restrictions, shutting women barriers to women’s ownership and control of assets. This out of many high-paying jobs. Such restrictions can have is vital for generating income, facilitating access to financial a detrimental effect on women’s livelihoods. Women services, and strengthening women’s ability to respond to farmers are predominant in most countries around the shocks (World Bank 2015). Women, Business and the Law world. However, in 18 economies women are prohibited examines gender differences in property and inheritance from working in agriculture, with the majority of the law, which affect women’s ability to control assets, through economies concentrated in the regions that face the most the Assets indicator. This indicator scores above the global food insecurity, such as Sub-Saharan Africa3 and the Middle average, at 81.3. However, of the 190 economies studied, 76 East and North Africa. (40 percent) limit women’s property rights. In 19 economies, women do not have equal ownership rights to immovable In Azerbaijan, legal restrictions prevent women from property. Worldwide, 43 economies still do not grant equal working in the same industries as men, including in mining, inheritance rights to surviving husbands and wives, and 41 construction, factories, agriculture, energy, water and economies prevent daughters from inheriting in the same transportation. Additionally, women cannot carry heavy way as sons. items and pregnant workers or women having children under three years of age cannot work during the night, For example, in Tanzania, sons and daughters and male overtime, on non-business days or go on job-related travel and female surviving spouses do not have the same (World Bank, 2020b). According to the ILO, blanket bans inheritance rights. Furthermore, even though the law grants on dangerous work as well as night work and overtime women equal ownership rights over immovable property, for all women are contrary to the principle of equality of improper implementation makes it difficult for women to opportunity and treatment in employment and occupation enforce their rights. According to the FAO women often and contribute to gender-based discrimination at work lack the financial support to enforce their rights. (ILO, 2014). The indicators for Mobility, Marriage, and Workplace Other indicators that examine constraints to more and indicate constraints to women’s voice and agency, which better jobs are Workplace, analyzing laws affecting are hindered not only by poorly designed legal frameworks, women’s decisions to enter and remain in the labor force, but also by social norms affecting their freedoms and and Entrepreneurship, examining constraints to women’s exposing them to the risks of gender-based violence. These ability to start and run a business. They have an average often have heavy tolls on development outcomes, causing global score above 80, meaning that most economies have impacts that reverberate across the four pillars of the removed restrictions or introduced the relevant legal rights Gender Strategy (Ouedraogo and Stenzel 2021). The Mobility and protections measured by these indicators. Nonetheless, indicator, examining constraints to women’s agency and the Workplace indicator finds room for improvement freedom of movement, shows that the law treats men in 69 economies. Under the Entrepreneurship indicator, and women differently in 55 economies. Legal constraints 101 economies still lack a legal provision that expressly related to marriage and divorce persist throughout the world. prohibits gender-based discrimination in access to credit. Such barriers weaken women’s decision-making powers Five economies legally restrict women from registering within the family and threaten their safety and livelihoods. a business in the same way as men, six economies do The Marriage indicator shows that in 18 economies, a not allow women to open a bank account in the same married woman is required by law to obey her husband, way as men, and two economies do not allow women to and in 28 economies, the husband is legally designated as sign a contract in the same way as men. In Equatorial head of household. The Workplace indicator shows that Guinea and Eswatini women entrepreneurs face all of in 19 economies, a husband can legally prevent his wife these legal restrictions. from working. 3 A  ccording to FAO (2021), half of the population in Africa face moderate or severe food insecurity. Source: https://www.fao.org/state-of-food-security-nutrition/2-1-2/en/ 7 The Marriage and Workplace indicators also examine the existence of domestic violence and sexual harassment legislation. Gender-based violence, including intimate partner violence and sexual harassment, hinder women’s ability to make decisions about their own lives. As the economic consequences of violence against women can cost countries a significant financial burden, addressing it is essential to boost women’s economic participation, achieve fundamental labor market goals, and close the gender pay gap. The Marriage indicator shows that 28 out of 190 economies do not have legislation addressing domestic violence. In the remaining economies, many do not have provisions prohibiting economic and financial abuse. Sexual harassment in the workplace is still pervasive. Globally, 43 economies still do not have legislation on sexual harassment in employment. Of the 147 economies that do, eight do not have civil remedies or criminal penalties available for such cases. Legal frameworks fail to address both domestic violence and sexual harassment in employment in Equatorial Guinea, Haiti, Mali, Mauritania, Myanmar, Qatar, the Russian Federation, Somalia, the Syrian Arab Republic, Uzbekistan, West Bank and Gaza and the Republic of Yemen. Gender inequality is a cross-cutting issue that permeates women’s experiences beyond their homes and workplace. Legal frameworks must take into account women’s challenges in the context of climate change, migration and displacement, conflict and fragility, and other intersectional areas such as sexuality, race, gender identity, religion, family status, ethnicity, nationality, disability, and many other grounds. While such topics are not presently covered by Women, Business and the Law, they present a valuable opportunity to develop its research agenda and contribute to further knowledge on women’s legal rights and associated outcomes. 8 WHERE LAWS ARE CHANGING Despite existing gaps, progress has been made to advance legal gender equality worldwide. Over the course of 53 years (1970–2022) and in the 35 areas measured, the average Women, Business and the Law score has improved from 45.8 in 1970 to 77.1 in 2022, but this progress has been uneven across regions and over time (see Figure 4). FIGURE 4. EVOLUTION OF AVERAGE WOMEN, BUSINESS AND THE LAW INDICATOR SCORES, 1970–2022 Source: Women, Business and the Law database. 9 These historical data are an important tool for understanding the geographical and chronological dimensions of legal barriers facing women. In the last five decades, the global average of the Women, Business and the Law score has improved by over 50 percent because of more than 2,000 reforms to expand women’s legal rights around the world (see Figure 5). Every economy has implemented gender equality reforms, but only 14 economies—Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden— score 100 in Women, Business and the Law 2023, meaning that women are on an equal legal standing with men across all of the areas measured. FIGURE 5. NUMBER OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS REFORMS IMPLEMENTED, BY DECADE AND REGION 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1970-1979 1980-1989 1990-1999 2000-2009 2010-2019 2020-2022 East Asia & Pacific Europe & Central Asia Latin America & Caribbean Middle East & North Africa OECD: High income South Asia Sub-Saharan Africa Source: Women, Business and the Law database. 10 In 2022, 18 governments sought to address gender inequality in the law by introducing legal reforms to improve women’s economic empowerment (see Figure 6). Of the 33 laws that changed because of these reforms, 17 were enacted in Sub-Saharan Africa, specifically in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Malawi, the Republic of Congo, Senegal, and Uganda. FIGURE 6. ECONOMIES THAT HAVE POSITIVELY REFORMED SINCE OCTOBER 2021, BY WOMEN, BUSINESS AND THE LAW INDICATOR AND REGION Source: Women, Business and the Law database. 11 Among these economies, Côte d’Ivoire and Gabon stand out as the first two economies in Sub-Saharan Africa to score above 90. Côte d’Ivoire enacted reforms that prohibit discrimination in access to credit based on gender, address domestic violence, and remove restrictions on women’s employment. In 2021, Gabon undertook a series of important reforms, including amendments to its civil and labor codes, which caused the economy’s score to rise from 57.5 in 2020 to 95 in 2023 (see Box 1). BOX 1. LEGAL REFORMS FOR GENDER EQUALITY IN GABON In 2021, Gabon undertook broad legal reforms captured by six of the eight Women, Business and the Law indicators in the 2022 and 2023 editions of the report: Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Entrepreneurship, and Assets. As a result of the reform efforts, Gabon’s WBL index score increased from 57.5 in 2020 to 82.5 in 2022 to 95 in 2023. A comprehensive reform of the civil code gave women the same rights as men to choose where to live, head a household, get jobs without permission from their husbands, open a bank account, own immovable property, and exercise equal administrative authority over assets during marriage. Additionally, the amended civil code no longer requires a married woman to obey her husband. By eliminating the requirement for married women to obtain marital authorization when applying for a passport, Gabon also made it easier for women to travel abroad. Further reforms prohibited gender-based discrimination in financial services, making it easier for women to access credit. Following a period of advocacy work guided by the government’s objective of addressing gender-based violence— and domestic violence in particular—Gabon enacted its first national law on the elimination of violence against women in September 2021. This new law targets physical, sexual, psychological, and economic forms of abuse and provides harsher punishment for domestic violence and protection orders for victims of violence. Finally, Gabon’s 2021 amendments to its labor code removed restrictions on women’s hazardous and arduous work. The amendments mandate for the first time that for work of equal value, equal remuneration should be provided for all workers regardless of their origin, opinion, sex, or age. A government task force, Gabon Equality, was instrumental in bringing about these reforms, as was the work of civil society organizations, including the Sylvia Bongo Ondimba Foundation. The World Bank Group’s Business Regulations for Gender Equity program (part of the Business Regulatory Environment Unit) also provided technical assistance in the drafting of reforms to the Civil, Criminal, and Labor Codes. Women, Business and the Law, in collaboration with the World Bank country office, organized several workshops to support these efforts. At the launch of the Women, Business and the Law 2020 report in Libreville in January 2020, policy makers and women’s rights advocates from 14 West and Central African economies discussed the barriers that stop women from fully and equally participating in society. Discriminatory laws were identified as one of the key barriers. 12 The highest-scoring regions remain the OECD high-income countries, Europe and Central Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, where economies score above the global average. The Middle East and North Africa and South Asia have the lowest regional averages (see Figure 7). FIGURE 7. DISPERSION OF WOMEN, BUSINESS AND THE LAW 2023 SCORES, BY REGION Source: Women, Business and the Law database. Note: Each vertical line represents the score of an economy in its respective region. Each blue circle indicates the average score for a region. The minimum and maximum scores within each region are specified. 13 HOW WORLD BANK OPERATIONS ADDRESS LEGAL FRAMEWORKS TOWARD GENDER EQUALITY Over the past decade, World Bank operations have Human Capital Development (Examples from increasingly focused on addressing legal frameworks Madagascar and Tuvalu) and promoting reforms for gender equality, strengthened Significant gender gaps still exist in human capital globally, by technical support provided by gender experts from particularly in low-income countries, poor and lagging across the institution. This includes development policy regions, FCV contexts, and among vulnerable populations. operations (DPOs) which are used to support a program of policy and institutional reforms that can anchor priorities In Cameroon, the Cameroon First Fiscal Inclusive and in a wider government program and amplify the effects Sustainable Growth DPF (P175249) incorporated a prior of complementary operations. DPOs are increasingly action to mandate school authorities to allow pregnant embedding policy actions to tackle gender gaps, including girls to remain in school reversing a previous decades old legal policy reform on childcare, labor law, pensions, policy that required pregnant and married girls to dropout. gender-based violence, and other critical areas. In recent This discriminatory policy was the second most significant years, there has been a trend to leverage DPOs to reshape cause of school dropout rates for girls after financial policies around gender-based violence, childcare, and problems and contributed to a gender gap in years of disaster response and resilience. schooling between boys and girls. The share of DPOs being used as an instrument to The government of Tuvalu, under the Tuvalu Second promote gender equality at the policy level has grown Resilience Development Policy Operation with Catastrophe from 24 percent in fiscal year (FY) 2017 to 85 percent in Deferred Drawdown Option (P172614), through its Cabinet FY22. DPOs are bolstered by diagnostic work and, due to has approved the Disability-Inclusive Education Policy and their multisectoral nature, they consolidate expertise across Action Plan to improve access to and quality of education the Word Bank Group and collaborate with government for children with disabilities. The Ministry of Education, ministries. The in-depth policy dialogue embedded in the Youth, and Sports started to regularly collect and report development policy financing process has proved critical education statistics, including students with disabilities, to building awareness around gender issues and their and sex-disaggregated data. developmental implications. Prior actions have resulted in important results for gender equality, including women Gender-based Violence (Examples from gaining better access to finance and property, increases in Egypt, Benin and Jordan): women’s jobs, more preschool participation, strengthened child protection, increased access to education and Gender-based violence (GBV) is a constraint to women’s health care, better connections to internet and electricity, voice and agency, and it remains widespread. GBV reductions in girls’ school dropout rates, more support to directly affects economic opportunities as a result of work survivors of gender-based violence, and greater female absenteeism, lower productivity, and its negative impact on representation in local elections, among others. women’s physical and mental health. Emerging evidence further underlines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic The DPO instrument can help connect complementary on violence against women and girls, which has particularly interventions in the country portfolio to strengthen gender affected girls’ schooling and women’s employment globally. developmental outcomes. Women, Business and the Law data and analysis have been used in several such initiatives In an effort to address the issue in Egypt, the Inclusive to identify key gender gaps in laws and regulations, Growth for Sustainable Recovery Development Policy support prior actions, set results targets, and supplement Financing (P171311), based on analytics from WBL reform recommendations. The following examples are Advisory and several other ASAs, has included various complemented by a more comprehensive list of operations prior actions to enforce the national code of conduct to in the Annex. address sexual harassment in the railway sub-sector. The operation includes a phased rollout to other subsectors and establishes a one-stop center for survivors of GBV in Greater Cairo. 14 In Jordan, a series of Development Policy Financing Childcare (Examples from Bangladesh (DPF) operations support the implementation of the and Colombia): government’s GBV reform agenda. Jordan Second Expanding access to quality, affordable childcare is among Equitable Growth & Job Creation Programmatic DPF the most important investments that countries can (P168130) is set to improve female labor force participation make to build human capital and accelerate equality as in Jordan, which is at 14 percent and among the lowest in currently childcare, elderly care and other care services, fall MENA region. A 2018 study estimated that 47 percent of disproportionately on women. non-working women in Jordan reportedly turned down job opportunities or did not seek work due to concerns The Bangladesh Second Programmatic Jobs Development about harassment in the transport sector (Hashemite Policy Credit (P168724) introduced policy reforms that Kingdom of Jordan 2018). Analytical work had already strengthen regulation on childcare centers and increase examined constraints to women’s labor force participation, government oversight to promote parental confidence in finding that laws restricting women from working in certain childcare provision. These reforms sought to create jobs for occupations or at particular times of day were important women in the sector and alleviate constraints on women’s barriers. The first DPF supported the enactment of by-laws labor force participation across all sectors. Two planned that allowed flexible work arrangements for women. The investment projects help implement this policy reform: second DPF focuses on improving women’s safety in the one focusing on strengthening the delivery of childcare workplace and transportation as well as amending labor services for early childhood development, and the other laws to reduce gendered labor segmentation. responding to the high demand for childcare services by setting up childcare service centers and providing training In Benin, an analysis of the legal gaps based on Women, for caregivers (Boyreau et al. 2021). Business and the Law data was included in the Benin First Unlocking Human and Productive Potential DPO Series The Government of Colombia under the Equitable and (P178042) and helped identify key legal gender gaps in the Green Recovery DPF (P176788), has enacted measures area of gender-based violence. that prohibit discrimination against women’s access to employment, increase the length of paternity leave, and In Madagascar, The Human Capital Development introduce shared parental leave to encourage the sharing Policy Financing (P168697) supported the government of responsibilities for unpaid care work and to support in strengthening the legal regime for the prevention and women’s economic empowerment. prosecution of acts of GBV and the protection of victims of GBV. As part of the DPF, the government enacted the 2019 Law on Combatting Gender-Based Violence. Women’s Labor Force Participation (Examples from Gambia and Azerbaijan) Women’s Economic and Financial Inclusion Globally, there are still large gaps between male and (Examples from Egypt, and Sierra Leone) female labor force participation rates (FLFP) and progress has remained stagnant for three decades. Labor force In Egypt the Inclusive Growth for Sustainable Recovery participation is around 53 percent for women versus 80 Development Policy Financing (P171311), has supported percent for men globally (Gender Data Portal). the Financial Regulatory Authority in issuing a decree prohibiting gender-based discrimination in access Under the Gambia Second Fiscal Management, Energy to non-banking financial services and activities and and Telecom Reform DPF (P179543), to encourage women mandating the collection and quarterly reporting of to take up leadership positions in the National Water and sex-disaggregated data. Electricity Company (NAWEC), the Government of Gambia approved a gender policy that addresses equal opportunity Women, Business and the Law data from 2020 was used to recruitment and employment measured by the proportion support a prior action in Sierra Leone’s First Inclusive and of female directors in NAWEC leadership team. Sustainable Growth DPO (P175342), leading to a reform that made access to credit easier for women by prohibiting The Lifting Legal Barriers to Women’s Employment in gender-based discrimination in financial services. Azerbaijan DPO (P173245) used Women, Business and the Law data to provide support to the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population in lifting restrictions to jobs that were legally banned for women. 15 Disaster Response and Resilience (Examples Promoting Women’s Leadership (Examples from DRC and Cabo Verde) from Sierra Leone and Morocco) Implementation of policies and laws to close gender gaps The Sierra Leone Second Inclusive and Sustainable on the different impacts of climate change, biodiversity Growth DPF (P178321) addresses women’s lack of inclusion loss, and pollution, including disaster response and in leadership in government institutions and weak land resilience initiatives is an urgent need. security. Women have less access to land and limited participation in land-based investment negotiations due The Dominica Disaster Risk Management Development to their lack of representation in local decision-making Policy Credit with a Catastrophe Deferred Drawdown bodies. New land commissions are being established that Option (P177807) supported the government of Dominica are responsible for the enforcement and implementation to increase women’s resilience to climate and disaster of tenure security, demarcation, and management of forests by introducing a Flexible Hurricane Protection (FHP) and other ecological resources. Legislation introduced in the policy. In 2021, FHP’s pilot year, 36 percent of the policies project mandates that at least 30 percent of commissioners were purchased by women entrepreneurs or working appointed on the board of these commissions are women, in agriculture. thereby promoting their decision-making over land use, management, and allocation. Under the Cabo Verde Second Resilient and Equitable Recovery DPF (P176148), the government has enacted The Morocco Second Financial and Digital Inclusion a decree establishing a shock-responsive safety net Development Policy Financing Project (P174004) tackles framework, indicating its features, implementation gaps in women’s leadership in the private sector. Women- process, roles, and responsibilities, particularly supporting led firms are scarce and there is a lack of diversity on female-headed households to benefit from temporary corporate boards. To improve the performance and income support in response to shocks, including climate- governance of public limited companies, a new law related shocks. establishes measures more than doubling the share of female members of boards of directors of listed companies from 11 percent to at least 25 percent. 16 KEY RECOMMENDATIONS TO ADVANCE WOMEN’S LEGAL RIGHTS Discriminatory norms and legal frameworks limit women’s To present a fuller picture of the legal environment economic opportunities. Moreover, when laws fail to for women, Women, Business and the Law 2022 protect women from violence, or in the contexts of conflict, introduced a new conceptual framework and disease, and natural disasters, women face additional preliminary data for measuring the implementation barriers to their full economic participation. The World gap. Pilot data from 25 economies examine both Bank Group can support legal reforms toward gender the supportive frameworks that create an enabling equality focusing on building women’s human capital, environment for working women and expert job quality and livelihood diversification, access to and opinions of progress made toward gender equality of ownership of assets, and leadership, voice, and agency. individuals on the ground. Building on that exercise, Furthermore, legal frameworks can also help to enhance Women, Business and the Law 2024 will offer new the effectiveness of gender-sensitive climate action. data and analytics on the de facto environment for the economic participation of women in 190 Women, Business and the Law research and data have economies, including measures to guarantee equal the potential to generate significant social and economic access to justice, safety regulations, online access, value for women by informing policy and legal reforms that and clear guidelines, examined in tandem with the improve their economic and social participation. World opinions of experts on the ground. Bank Group operational teams, development partners, civil society networks and government agencies can use Care: When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, • this diagnostic framework to identify, address, and remove childcare needs became suddenly more urgent and barriers to women’s success and boost economic inclusion. the importance of aligning childcare policies with Sufficient and adequate resources to implement national the needs of working mothers even clearer. The and international commitments to gender equality is enactment of policies to make childcare available, essential for that purpose. affordable, and of decent quality is a priority due to its potential to achieve better outcomes for Looking ahead, the World Bank needs to make continued women, children, and the economy as a whole. efforts in supporting not just the creation, but critically the In support of this goal, Women, Business and the enforcement of gender focused reforms, working closely Law has developed a new conceptual framework with client countries based on new research and evidence. for measuring the legal environment affecting the Some of the suggested areas of focus are discussed below. provision of childcare services. Women, Business and the Law 2022 presented preliminary data Implementation of laws: Laws need to be properly • exploring current laws related to the availability, implemented and enforced to have the greatest affordability, and quality of childcare in 95 economies. beneficial impact for women and overall economic Going forward, a new Childcare indicator will offer a development. This may call for supporting more complete measure of the laws and mechanisms and policies that sequence legislation, policy instruments that support the provision provide regulating procedures, ensure access to fair of childcare services. and effective justice institutions, or guarantee social services. Legal reform and supporting policies can Unpaid care work is not limited to childcare. The encourage women’s participation in the workforce, sharing of care responsibilities needs to be looked bring about macroeconomic benefits, and change at holistically through a demographic lens at the social norms and expectations around gender country level and across a woman’s lifetime, as elder (Christopherson et al., 2022). and disability care often falls disproportionately on women. More research on the policy framework around the care economy is needed to fully address the impact of unpaid care responsibilities on women’s economic participation. 17 • Women’s health and safety: Strong legal frameworks efforts in identifying key gaps for interventions. For and institutions protecting women from violence are example, laws that prevent pregnant girls from crucial to their economic empowerment. Women, remaining or limiting their participation in school can Business and the Law is expanding its research on significantly affect their economic opportunities. women’s safety to collect data in key areas, such as child marriage, marital rape, and sexual harassment Gender inequalities in fragile and conflict situations: • in other contexts beyond the workplace where Gender inequality is magnified in fragile and conflict important legal gaps remain, which will inform a new situations (FCS), where discriminatory social norms indicator on Safety. For example, Arthur et al. (2018) combine with lack of access to health, education, document that, between 1995 and 2013, the number justice, and employment (World Bank Group 2020c). of countries worldwide that prohibit marriage Gender inequality must be addressed both as a under the age of 18 has increased, but important potential root cause for fragility and in efforts to gaps remain in removing legal exemptions. Within transition out of FCS. Promoting women’s economic this context, research on women’s health is also participation is key in these contexts, especially warranted. Access to family planning is paramount because the share of women-headed households to women’s ability to choose where and when to tends to increase during violence and conflict (World work (Gammage, Joshi, and van der Meulen Rodgers Bank Group 2020c). To better identify resilience and 2020) and can improve women’s agency, education, recovery pathways out of FCS, Women, Business and and participation in the labor force (Finlay and Lee the Law is producing two thematic deep-dives in 2018). Female genital mutilations (FGM) affect at 10 selected economies experiencing fragility. They least 200 million girls and women around the world assess gaps and promising practices in the areas of (WHO 2022). This harmful practice has severe socio- gender-based violence and access to land, two areas economic consequences and high costs for victims where FCS have disproportionate, adverse impacts (Odukogbe et al. 2017). The World Bank has published on women. a Compendium of International and National Women with disabilities: Women are not a • Legal Frameworks on FGM (World Bank 2022), but homogenous group but have overlapping identities, comprehensive research on the economic, health, such as race, ethnicity, language, religion, sexual and social impact of FGM is still lacking. Additional orientation, and gender identity and expression analysis of legal and regulatory barriers to women’s that can compound their exclusion both at the access to health services would support operational 18 individual and systemic levels. The barriers women Gender-sensitive climate policies: Challenges to • with disabilities face in accessing socio-economic livelihoods, health, and safety have exacerbated opportunities result in exclusion from the labor force preexisting inequalities and injustices for women, and increased experience of gender-based violence. who are often the most adversely affected by Under the World Bank Group’s 10 Commitments crises. Gender is an important factor in determining on Disability-Inclusive Development, Women, how people are affected by climate change, and Business and the Law continues to produce new their capacity to respond to it (Global Gender and data assessing nondiscrimination under gender and Climate Alliance 2016). Discriminatory laws and disability legislation, and the rights to family life, social norms cause women to have less access than labor inclusion, and a life free from violence for men to land, farm inputs, credit, decision-making women with disabilities, which can be used by positions, and knowledge that would enhance their the World Bank task teams to discuss updating adaptive capacity to climate-related challenges legislations in client countries focused on assisting (Aguilar 2008). As progress is made globally toward women with disabilities. the green economy, there is a need to create policies and guidelines, and to enforce legislation, against Women’s leadership: Women’s leadership and • harsh and unsafe working conditions for the women participation in decision-making positions (e.g., in and children who work in affected sectors. Key the political positions, judicial sector, on the climate international conventions and commitments on change agenda, and in the private sector) are also climate action have long called for gender-sensitive paramount for a more equitable representation climate policies.4 Comprehensive data on gender- of women’s interests. Capacity building can sensitive climate laws and policies are needed to complement these efforts, with a view to eliminating drive and inform the design of effective reforms in gender stereotypes and shifting harmful mindsets this area. that foster, justify, or tolerate violence against women in communities, schools, and workplaces. Achieving gender equality requires a much broader, long-term effort, by governments, firms, civil society, Gendered tax policy: Tax policy has important • international organizations, and others, but legal and implications for gender equality (Stotsky 1997, Grown regulatory reforms can play a foundational role as an and Valodia 2010, and Lahey 2018 among others). important first step embedded in the country, regional, Tax policies can be designed to alleviate gender and cultural contexts. inequalities but can also exacerbate inequalities, due to the underlying differences between men and women in terms of labor force participation, pay, and asset ownership, among other factors. Gender biases can be found in many areas of taxation, including personal income tax, property taxes, and corporate income taxes. While this area is receiving renewed attention of late (Coelho et al. 2022 and OECD 2022), what is missing is a global stocktake and analysis of the interaction between tax policies and gender equality. Women, Business and the Law plans to address this knowledge gap by assessing and documenting gender dimensions of tax policies across the globe, which can be helpful to client countries in the design of tax policies. 4  aris Agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Dec. 12, 2015, T.I.A.S. No. 16-1104, Arts. 7(5) and P 11(2); Enhanced Lima Work Programme on Gender, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties Decision 3/CP.25, 2019; UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation No. 37 on Gender-related dimensions of disaster risk reduction in the context of climate change, par. 26, 2018; United Nations, Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action, adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women, 27 October 1995. 19 ANNEX WORLD BANK GROUP OPERATIONS WITH COMPONENTS ADDRESSING GENDER ASPECTS IN LEGAL FRAMEWORKS (APPROVED SINCE 2013, ALPHABETICAL BY COUNTRY) Project name Project Fiscal Countries Thematic areas number Year Albania Gender Equality in Access to P160594 2020 Albania Jobs; Assets Economic Opportunities DPF Lifting Legal Restrictions on Women’s P173245 2021 Azerbaijan Jobs; Labor Employment in Azerbaijan market reforms Second Programmatic Jobs Development P168724 2020 Bangladesh Jobs; Childcare Policy Credit First Unlocking Human and Productive P176513 2022 Benin Voice and Agency Potential DPO Series Benin: Benin First and Second P178042 2023 Benin Human Endowments Unlocking Human and Productive Potential DPF series BR State Of Goias Sustainable P177632 2022 Brazil Human Endowments Recovery DPF Great Lakes Emergency Sexual and P147489 2014 Burundi, Rwanda, and Voice and Agency; Gender Based Violence and Women’s Democratic Republic Gender-based Health Project of the Congo violence Cameroon First Fiscal Sustainability, P175249 2023 Cameroon Human Endowments Inclusive and Sustainable Growth Development Policy Financing CV-IDF-Strengthening the Rule of Law P085572 2004 Cape Verde Voice and Agency Equitable and Green Recovery DPF P176788 2022 Colombia Human Endowments; Jobs; Labor market reform Côte d’Ivoire Investment Climate Reform 588607 2013 Côte d’Ivoire Voice and Agency Program – Business Regulation (IFC) Egypt Inclusive Growth for P171311 2022 Egypt Assets; Jobs Sustainable Recovery KE-CB to Support Gender-Responsive P087720 2004 Kenya Assets; Voice Implementation of the Expanded Legal and Agency; Sector Reform Program Access to justice Kiribati Second Inclusive Growth and P169179 2021 Kiribati Childcare; Jobs Resilience Development Policy Operation 20 Project name Project Fiscal Countries Thematic areas number Year Madagascar Investing in Human Capital P168697 2020 Madagascar Human Endowments Development Policy Financing Second Financial and Digital Inclusion P174004 2021 Morocco Voice and Agency; Development Policy Financing Leadership Building Institutions And Human Capital P175256 2022 Niger Human Endowments Development Policy Financing Pakistan Securing Human Investments P172628 2021 Pakistan Jobs to Foster Transformation II Senegal Equitable and Resilient P172723 2022 Senegal Jobs Recovery DPF SL First Inclusive and Sustainable P175342 2022 Sierra Leone Assets Growth DPO Tanzania Citizen-Centric Judicial P172922 2022 Tanzania Voice and Agency; Modernization and Justice Service Access to Justice/ Delivery Project Implementation Tonga Third Inclusive Growth P159263 2019 Tonga Jobs Development Policy Operation Project Uganda Strengthening Social Risk P160447 2017 Uganda Voice and Agency Management and Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response Project Accelerating Uzbekistan's Transition DPO P174274 2022 Uzbekistan Jobs The Vietnam Inclusive and Sustainable P176717 2021 Vietnam Jobs Recovery Development Policy Operation 21 REFERENCES Acemoglu, Daron, and Matthew O. 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