No country in the world affords women the same opportunities as men at work, according to a report that exposes a ‘massive’ gender gap across the global workforce.
The World Bank claims that closing the gender gap in employment and entrepreneurship could increase global GDP by more than 20%, but women currently enjoy less than two-thirds of the legal rights available to men across the world, with deficiencies in childcare and safety protections in particular deterring them from work.
Indermit Gill, chief economist of the World Bank Group and senior vice president for development economics, said: “Women have the power to turbocharge the sputtering global economy. Yet, all over the world, discriminatory laws and practices prevent women from working or starting businesses on an equal footing with men.
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“Closing this gap could raise global gross domestic product by more than 20% – essentially doubling the global growth rate over the next decade – but reforms have slowed to a crawl.”
Its Women, Business and the Law report claims that 37 countries grant women less than half the legal rights of men, to the detriment of around half a billion women.
It estimates that only half of women have the right to equal pay, with 92 economies lacking legislation mandating equal pay. Overall, women earn just 77 cents for every dollar paid to a man, the international development organisation says.
Although many countries have enacted legislation to enhance women’s rights and promote equal opportunities, some are lacking the enforcement regimes needed to ensure they are effective. For example, although 98 countries have legislation mandating equal pay for work of equal value, only 35 have adopted pay transparency measures or enforcement mechanisms.
Sexual harassment is also an issue. Although 151 economies have laws in place that prohibit sexual harassment at work, only 39 have legislation that protects women in public places, which means many women are not adequately protected when travelling to work.
Many countries score poorly on laws relating to childcare, which may mean women think twice about going to work after having children. Fewer than one in three countries (62) have quality standards governing childcare services, and only 78 offer tax or financial support for parents with young children.
Expanding access to childcare tends to increase women’s participation in the labour force by about 1 percentage point initially, with this more than doubling within five years, it says.
On average women spend 2.4 hours a day more on unpaid care work than men, the report claims.
It also finds that:
- Women are prohibited from working at night in 20 countries, and from “dangerous” jobs in 45 countries
- In 62 countries, the age at which women and men can retire is not the same, with men permitted to work later in life
- In 81 economies, a woman’s pension benefits do not account for periods of absence related to childcare
- Women hold just one in five board positions globally.
However, progress is being made. In 2023, Azerbaijan, Jordan, Malaysia, Oman, Sierra Leone and Uzbekistan introduced equal pay legislation or removed restrictions on a woman’s ability to work in industrial or “dangerous” jobs; while Cyprus, Malaysia, Oman, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, the Slovak Republic and Togo all introduced reforms to maternity pay, paternity leave and dismissal protections for pregnant women.
The report’s lead author Tea Trumbic said: “It is more urgent than ever to accelerate efforts to reform laws and enact public policies that empower women to work and start and grow businesses.
“Today, barely half of women participate in the global workforce, compared with nearly three out of every four men. This is not just unfair – it’s wasteful. Increasing women’s economic participation is the key to amplifying their voices and shaping decisions that affect them directly. Countries simply cannot afford to sideline half of their population.”
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