Countries are inching toward greater gender equality, but women around the world continue to face laws and regulations that restrict their economic opportunity, the World Bank said in a report released today. In its latest “Women, Business and the Law” report for 2021, the World Bank said that the COVID-19 pandemic has created new challenges to women’ health, safety, and economic security.

It finds that on average, women have just three-quarters of the legal rights afforded to men. “Women were already at a disadvantage before the pandemic, and government initiatives to buffer some of its effects, while innovative, have been limited in many countries,” the report said.

In 2020, the average global score is 76.1 out of 100 (above the average 75.5 in 2019), indicating that the world has achieved about three-quarters of good practice legislation as measured by the indicators. Up from eight in 2019, ten economies—Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal, and Sweden—scored 100 as per the report. A score of 100 indicates that women are on an equal legal standing with men across all areas measured.

India scored 74.4 on the Women, Business and the Law index- at par with countries like Gambia, Madagascar. India’s score ranged from 25 to 100 across various parameters. For instance, on mobility, marriage, and workplace, India scored 100. It scored 80 on assets, 75 on entrepreneurship and pension, 40 on parenthood and the least on pay- at 25.

Of the 39 economies with scores higher than 90, 28 were OECD high-income economies, and 7 are in Europe and Central Asia. The remaining 4 are in Latin America and the Caribbean, East Asia and the Pacific, and Sub-Saharan Africa. No economy in the Middle East and North Africa or South Asia scores 90 or higher.

When economies were classified by income level, high-income ones scored the highest, with an average score of 85.9 out of 100. The upper-middle-income economies were 10.6 points behind high-income economies, with an average score of 75.3. Lower-middle economies had average scores of 70.8 and low-income economies 66.1, the report said.

Overall, the report finds that many governments have put in place measures to address some of the impacts of the pandemic on working women. For instance, less than a quarter of all economies surveyed in the report legally guaranteed employed parents any time off for childcare before the pandemic. Since then, in light of school closures, nearly an additional 40 economies around the world have introduced leave or benefit policies to help parents with childcare.

Even so, these measures are likely insufficient to address the challenges many working mothers already face, or the childcare crisis.

“Women need to be fully included in economies in order to achieve better development outcomes,” said David Malpass, World Bank Group President. “Despite progress in many countries, there have been troubling reversals in a few, including restricting women’s travel without the permission of a male guardian. This pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities that disadvantage girls and women, including barriers to attend school and maintain jobs. Women are also facing a rise in domestic violence and health and safety challenges. Women should have the same access to finance and the same rights to inheritance as men and must be at the center of our efforts toward an inclusive and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Women, Business and the Law 2021 measures the laws and regulations across 8 areas that affect women’s economic opportunities in 190 countries, covering the period from September 2019-October 2020. From the basics of movement in the community to the challenges of working, parenting, and retiring, the data offers objective and measurable benchmarks for global progress toward gender equality. Following the outbreak of the pandemic, this report also looks at government responses to the COVID-19 crisis and how the pandemic has impacted women at work and at home, focusing on childcare, access to justice, and health and safety.​

(Edited by : Abhishek Jha)