W’Bank: Nearly 2.4bn Women Globally Lack Same Economic Rights as Men

Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja

About 2.4 billion women of working age are not afforded equal economic opportunity, and 178 countries maintain legal barriers that prevent their full economic participation, according to the just-released World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law (WBL) 2022 report.

Women in 186 countries face some form of job restriction and 95 countries do not guarantee equal pay for equal work, the report stated.

The Middle East and North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa regions showed the largest improvements in the WBL Index in 2021, though they continue to lag behind other parts of the world overall.

Gabon stands out with comprehensive reforms to its civil code and the enactment of a law on the elimination of violence against women. Gabon’s score rose from 57.5 in 2020 to 82.5 in 2021.

The report noted that while Nigeria has made some progress in socio-economic terms in recent years, human capital development remains weak due to under-investment and important challenges in terms of oil dependency, governance issues, weak infrastructure, and gender equality.

“Women in Nigeria face gaps in economic empowerment and challenges to the exercise of voice and agency. When women are given the same opportunities as men, they enter and remain in the labour force, strengthening economies and enabling development.

“Gender equality is also associated with better development outcomes, such as lower rates of vulnerable employment and extreme poverty among female workers,” the report said.

Nigeria was scored 63.1 out of 100
on the Women, Business and the Law
index, indicating that although progress had been made, there is more work to be done.

The score is below both the regional average for Sub-Saharan Africa (71.0) and the global average (76.1).

“The current score can be attributed to the limited progress made on legal reforms recoded by Women, Business and the Law over the last 50 years,” the report added.

According to the World Bank report, globally, women still have only three quarters of the legal rights afforded to men — an aggregate score of 76.5 out of a possible 100, which denotes complete legal parity.

However, despite the disproportionate effect on women’s lives and livelihood from the global pandemic, 23 countries reformed their laws in 2021 to take the much-needed steps towards advancing women’s economic inclusion, according to the report.

“While progress has been made, the gap between men’s and women’s expected lifetime earnings globally is US$172 trillion – nearly two times the world’s annual GDP.

“As we move forward to achieve green, resilient and inclusive development, governments need to accelerate the pace of legal reforms so that women can realize their full potential and benefit fully and equally,” said World Bank Managing Director of Development Policy and Partnerships, Mari Pangestu.

Women, Business and the Law 2022 measures laws and regulations across 190 countries in eight areas impacting women’s economic participation – mobility, workplace, pay, marriage, parenthood, entrepreneurship, assets, and pensions.

The data offer objective and measurable benchmarks for global progress towards gender equality.

Just 12 countries, all part of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), have legal gender parity.

New in this year’s WBL is a 95-country pilot survey of laws governing childcare — a critical area where support is needed for women to succeed in paid employment.

A pilot analysis of how laws affecting women’s economic empowerment are actually implemented is also included, highlighting the difference between laws on the books and the reality experienced by women.

Globally, the highest number of reforms were made in the Parenthood, Pay, and Workplace indicators.

Many reforms are focused on protecting sexual harassment in employment, prohibiting gender discrimination, increasing paid leave for new parents, and removing job restrictions for women.

The Pay and Parenthood indicators have the lowest average scores in the index, but they have increased in the last year, rising 0.9 and 0.7 points, respectively, with average scores of 68.7 and 55.6.

The gains in the Parenthood indicator have largely been around paternity leave and shared parental leave, but the low score highlights the need to accelerate reforms in this area.

“Women cannot achieve equality in the workplace if they are on an unequal footing at home.

“That means levelling the playing field and ensuring that having children doesn’t mean women are excluded from full participation in the economy and realizing their hopes and ambitions,” said the Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist of the World Bank Group, Carmen Reinhart.