Women, Business and the Law - Gender Equality, Women Economic Empowerment

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The Women, Business and the Law team will not publish a report in 2025. The team has worked on enhancing its strategic direction to ensure the quality, scope, and impact of the Women, Business and the Law reports in the long term.

The team has recently published three foundational documents and has started data collection for the next data update and report, which is expected to be published in March 2026. For more details on the project milestones, please refer to the FAQ page.

Foundational documents:

Women, Business and the Law Concept Note defines the project objectives and approach to ensure quality, credibility, and relevance of the data and reports
Women, Business and the Law Methodology Handbook details the measurement methodology, as refined through active consultations with experts and rigorous research
Women, Business and the Law Manual and Guide outlines the project’s operational procedures, protocols, and safeguards, including modernized IT systems, to ensure the integrity, transparency, and quality of its measurements

Highlights

PRESS RELEASE: New Data Show Massive, Wider-than-Expected Global Gender Gap

For the first time, Women, Business and the Law analyzes not only the pace of legal reforms to create equal economic opportunities for women, but also countries’ efforts to implement those laws.

Representation Matters 2025 Report

This report highlights the impact of women’s political representation on economic growth. Countries with more women in political office pass more laws enhancing women’s economic rights (as measured by the Women, Business and the Law index), boosting female labor force participation and economic growth.

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IMF and WBG Annual Meetings: Data on the Global State of Legal Gender ...

During the 2024 IMF and World Bank Group Annual Meetings, WBL team members, Natália Mazoni, Nayantara Vohra, and Alexis Cheney, demonstrated how policymakers, civil society representatives and researchers may use Women, Business and the Law data to close global gender gaps and drive economic development.

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WATCH the WBL 2024 Launch Event

Watch the replay of our launch event for the Women, Business and the Law 2024 report and data. Key actors from multilateral organizations as well as from the public, private, and non-profit sectors will draw on the report’s findings and discuss ways to advance women's economic empowerment with legal, policy, and institutional reform.

When Women Win, the World Wins

Globally, women’s legal rights have improved markedly since 1970, as major reforms have dismantled a wide array of barriers that women face at all stages of their working lives. However, a massive global gender gap remains, and progress in many critical areas appears to have been overestimated.

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It’s time to mobilize the economic power of women

Closing the gender gap in employment could increase long-term GDP per capita by about 20% globally. In their op-ed, Anna Bjerde & Indermit Gill reaffirm that the business case for gender equality in the workplace has never been stronger.

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Filling the Gaps: Childcare Laws for Women's Economic Empowerment

This paper aims to provide global evidence on whether and what attributes of laws governing the provision of childcare services affect women's labor market outcomes.

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Research

Alena Sakhonchik, Gabriela Lucia Marzonetto & Luiza Ferraz Di Ricco Feb 25, 2025

Toward Availability, Public Finance, and Quality of Childcare Services in Latin America and the Caribbean

Alexis Koumjian Cheney, Daniela Monika Behr Feb 12, 2025

Sierra Leone’s Reform Journey to Advancing Female Entrepreneurship and Financial Inclusion

Daniela M. Behr, Caroline Perrin, Marie Hyland & Tea Trumbic Jun 03, 2024

Working Paper: Empowering Change: Assessing the Role of Democracy, Civil Society, and Women’s Rights Groups in Advancing Legal Gender Equality

Lolita Laperle-Forget & Alev Gürbüz Cuneo Mar 26, 2024

Brief: Women, International Trade, and the Law: Breaking Barriers for Gender Equality in Export-Related Activities

Blogs

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New Areas

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Measuring the Legal Environment in Practice

Women, Business and the Law 2.0 extends the measurement of the legal environment in practice to 190 economies, examining the existence of frameworks that support the implementation of the law and gauging experts’ opinions on the outcome of the law for women.

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Toward Available, Affordable, and Quality Childcare Services

Women, Business and the Law 2.0 has expanded its data on the availability, affordability, and quality of childcare services to 190 economies and is presenting a stand-alone indicator on childcare.

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Women's Safety

Women, Business and the Law’s new Safety indicator measures laws and policy instruments addressing four pervasive forms of violence against women: child marriage, sexual harassment, domestic violence, and femicide.