Are we doing enough for women empowerment?

Source: https://www.empowher.com

Women don’t need to find a voice. They have the voice. They need to feel empowered to use it — Meghan Markle

Introduction

Women, Business, and Law (WBL) is a study that analyzes laws and regulations affecting women’s economic opportunity in 190 economies. The study provides insights into how women’s employment and entrepreneurship are affected by legal gender discrimination, and in turn how this affects economic outcomes. It is structured around eight indicators that align with the economic decisions women make at various stages of their lives.

1. Mobility: Examining constraints on women’s freedom of movement.
2. Workplace: Analyzing laws affecting women’s decisions to enter and remain in the labor force.
3. Pay: Measuring laws and regulations concerning job restrictions and the gender wage gap.
4. Marriage: Assessing legal constraints related to marriage.
5. Parenthood: Evaluating laws affecting women’s work after having children.
6. Entrepreneurship: Examining constraints facing women starting and running a business.
7. Assets: Analyzing gender differences in property and inheritance laws.
8. Pension: Assessing laws affecting the size of women’s pension.

In this project, WBL data from 1971–2020 was used to perform analysis to show the progress made towards equality and also to identify the efforts needed to fill the gap.

What is the average WBL Index over the Region between 2015–2019?

The first question that I wanted to address was is a particular region performing better as compared to others. Here we can see that in the last 5 years, the trend is similar with High income: OECD having the highest average WBL index, followed by Europe & Central Asia and Latin America & Caribbean whereas the Middle East & North Africa have been ranking the lowest with the average WBL index less than 50.

Which region made the most progress between 2015–2019?

Even though the Middle East & North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia have the lowest average WBL index between 2015–2019, these three regions have made the most progress towards equality in the past 5 years with the highest percentage change in the WBL Index.

Number of Economy per Region with over 90 WBL INDEX as of 2019

As of 2019, there are 27 economies in High income: OECD, 9 in Europe & Central Asia, 2 in Latin America, and only 1 in both East Asia Pacific and Sub Saharan Africa that has the WBL INDEX over 90.

None of the countries in South Asia or the Middle East & North Africa have a high score over 90.

Which countries in each Region are the best and worst for women?

As per the latest data for 2020, 7 out of 32 countries in High income: OECD region — Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Luxembourg, and Sweden have achieved the perfect score of 100.

West Bank and Gaza in the Middle East & North Africa have the lowest score of 26.3.

Latvia, Peru, Taiwan,China , Mauritius, India, and Malta have made the most progress in their respective region.

Which indicators have the largest gap to fill?

As of 2019, Parenthood and Pay have the most gap to fill. Parenthood has an average score of only 53% whereas Pay indicator has an average score of 65%. The overall average WBL INDEX is still at 75%.

In which indicator have the economies introduced the most reform?

This is good news. Between 2017 and 2019, the highest number of reforms have been introduced in Parenthood and Pay which happen to be the indicator that needs to be made the most progress to achieve the perfect WBL index.

Analyzing the factors related to the WBL INDEX

In the below exercise, factors related to the 8 indicators were analyzed to study which aspects need the reforms to be passed in.

For example: In 28% of the countries, there is no law that protects women against sexual harassment in the workplace.

How many countries need to step up in each indicator?

1. Countries are doing much better in terms of MOBILITY but 32% of the world nations still restrict women’s freedom of movement
2. 42% of the nations have laws constraining women’s decision to join or continue working
3. 71% of the economies do not guarantee equality in terms of women’s remuneration
4. Almost half of the economies do not have laws related to marriage
5. A whopping 87% of the countries need to introduce reforms to make it easy for a woman to return to work after having a child.
6. In nearly 2/3rd of the countries, women cannot start or run a business in the same way a man does
7. 41% of countries restrict women’s property rights
8. 63% of economies do not have laws ensuring women’s pension.

Conclusion

We took a look at the WBL index data for 190 countries over the years and drew the following insights:

1. In terms of making progress towards equality, richer countries are achieving higher scores.
2. Even though the Middle East & North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have a low WBL index, these regions have made the most progress towards equality between 2015–2019
3. The largest number of countries with a high score belongs to High income: OECD whereas none of the economies in South Asia and the Middle East & North Africa have an index over 90.
4. Parenthood and Pay have the most gap to fill and the good news is that between 2017–2019, the highest number of reforms have been introduced in Parenthood and Pay.

We have made progress towards equality and empower women in different aspects of life, but still, the overall average WBL index as of 2020 is only 75. Nations across the world will have to introduce reforms and laws to bridge this gap and provide an equal playing field.

Is your country empowering women to break the glass ceiling?

References:

https://wbl.worldbank.org/