Posted on 08.03.2023 at 2:39 p.m. by Esther Fossi
According to the World Bank, this situation is hampering economic growth at a critical time.
Pace of reform for equal treatment of women before the law is at 20-year low, threatens to hamper economic growth at critical juncture, new World Bank report says for the global economy.
In 2022, the global average score of the index produced by the report ” Women, Business and the Law increased by only half a point to reach 77.1 out of 100, this means that women on average only enjoy barely 77% of the legal rights granted to men. The report notes that at the current pace of reform, in many countries a young woman entering the workforce today will retire before she has been able to obtain the same rights as men.
The report ” Women, Business and the Law 2023 » screens the laws and regulations of 190 countries in eight areas that influence women’s participation in economic life: mobility, work, remuneration, marriage, parenthood, entrepreneurship, assets and retirement. The data, stopped at 1is October 2022, provide objective benchmarks against which to measure progress towards legal gender equality around the world. Today, only 14 countries, all high-income economies, have achieved full legal parity.
According to the World Bank, nearly 2.4 billion women of working age in the world still do not enjoy the same rights as men. However, by closing the gender gap in employment, GDP per capita could increase in the long term by almost 20% on average. In addition, studies estimate between $5 trillion and $6 trillion in global economic gains that could be achieved if women started and grew new businesses at the same rate as men.
“As global economic growth slows, all countries need to mobilize their full productive capacity to deal with the confluence of crises they face. says Indermit Gill, Chief Economist of the World Bank Group and Senior Vice President in charge of Development Economics.
« States cannot afford to sideline almost half of their population. The fact that much of the world does not grant women the same rights as men is not only an injustice to them, but also an obstacle to the ability of these countries to promote development green, resilient and inclusive”.