Women, Business and the Law 2018 by the World Bank (March 2018)

In its 5th edition, Women, Business and the Law introduces scoring to better inform the reform agenda. The report tracks progress made over the past two years and identifies opportunities to ensure economic empowerment for all. Despite progress, legal barriers remain widespread.

Link: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/29498/9781464812521.pdf .

Women, Business and the Law (WBL) is a World Bank Group project collecting unique data on the laws and regulations that restrict women’s economic opportunities.

When societies get to equal, economies become more resilient. That’s why WBL is committed to informing research and policy discussions about the state of women’s economic prospects and outcomes. The report celebrates the progress that has been made while emphasizing the work still to be done to ensure economic empowerment for all.

Since 2009, WBL has enhanced the study of gender equality and informed discussions on improving women’s prosperity. The dataset offers objective and measurable benchmarks for global progress toward gender equality. Comparable across economies, the data is useful for research and policy discussions on improving women’s economic outcomes.

Now in its fifth edition, WBL has expanded coverage to 189 economies and 7 topics relevant to women’s economic participation.