Following extensive consultations with gender experts, academics, civil society representatives, and colleagues within the World Bank Group, the Women, Business and the Law team designs questionnaires that are administered to a large sample of lawyers, judges, academics, and members of civil society organizations in 190 economies. These expert contributors—who complete the questionnaires on a pro bono basis—are identified by their expertise in the various areas of law covered by the report.

The team further engages with expert contributors through conference calls, written correspondence, and in-person meetings on country visits. All questionnaire responses are then analyzed, with each answer verified against the corresponding primary legal source. Lastly, the data undergoes a thorough internal review process in which comments on the data are received from across the World Bank Group.

More details about the data collection are provided in the Manual and Guide.

The Women, Business and the Law (WBL) index is based on statistically significant associations with outcomes related to women’s economic empowerment, in particular with women’s labor force participation as well as with other outcomes of interest, for example, female to male labor force participation rate ratio from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators database, the female to male wage ratio from the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, the percentage of firms with a female top manager from the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys, and the percentage of females who report owning financial accounts from the World Bank’s Global FINDEX database.

In addition to the association of indicators with outcomes, WBL employs a thorough review of the economic literature that supports each indicator, demonstrating how legislation influences women’s equality of opportunity during different phases of their working lives and affects their economic inclusion.

Finally, to ensure their relevance to women’s human and economic rights, each indicator is supported by the international legal framework set out in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and other international legal documents, such as the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (DEVAW), the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women’s General Recommendations, and Conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO).

More details about the methodology are provided in the Data Notes.

Women, Business and the Law 1.0 provides scores for each economy covered. Thirty-five data points are scored across eight indicators of four or five binary questions, with each indicator representing a different phase of a woman’s career. Indicator-level scores are obtained by calculating the unweighted average of the questions within that indicator and scaling the result to 100. Overall scores are then calculated by taking the average of each indicator, with 100 representing the highest possible score.

Women, Business and the Law 2.0 provides scores for each economy covered on three pillars: legal framework, supportive frameworks and expert opinions. 

• WBL 2.0 Legal Frameworks: 40 points are scored across 10 indicators of four binary questions, with each indicator representing a different phase of a woman’s career. Indicator-level scores are obtained by calculating the unweighted average of the questions within that indicator and scaling the result to 100. Overall scores are then calculated by taking the average of each indicator, with 100 representing the highest possible score. 
• WBL 2.0 Supportive Framework: 30 data points are scored across 10 indicators composed of two to four binary questions. Each indicator represents a different phase or aspect of a woman’s life. Indicator-level scores are obtained by calculating the unweighted average of responses to the questions within that indicator and scaling the result to 100. Overall scores are then calculated by taking the average of each indicator, with 100 representing the highest possible score. 
• WBL 2.0 Expert opinion: 15 data points are scored across 10 indicators measured with one to two scale questions. Each indicator represents a different phase or aspect of a woman’s life. Each question asks the respondent’s opinion about the extent to which these key outcomes are being realized in practice in a particular economy. Response options fall on a five-point scale (0–4) where 0 indicates absence of access to or availability of rights for almost all women in practice, and 4 indicates the existence of access to or availability of rights for almost all women in practice. This format allows the scale to remain consistent across questions and economies whether a question is intended to measure the absence of a legal restriction, enforcement of a right, or provision of benefits.

Information on the construction of the dataset, the methodology, and the scoring for each question can be found in the Data Notes, available on the Methodology page.

Policy makers, international financial institutions, civil society organizations (CSOs), investors, and researchers can utilize the data and findings from Women, Business and the Law in various ways. The data evaluate the legal and regulatory environment across 190 economies, enabling cross-country comparisons and highlighting the impact of legal reforms on gender equality, labor market participation, and economic growth. For example, WBL data support legal and policy reform by highlighting best practices and regulatory gaps, helping governments and organizations drive impactful change. Businesses and investors can use the data to evaluate regulatory environments and assess economic risks for women business owners and workers. Researchers can rely on WBL data to support evidence-based arguments on gender equality’s role in job creation and economic growth.

Over the past years, Women, Business and the Law (WBL) has taken as its starting point that the law can help women reach their full potential. It is the framework by which governments can identify barriers to women’s success and, by removing them, boost their labor force participation. However, for women to thrive in the world of work, the laws that guarantee their equality of opportunity must be meaningfully implemented and enforced.

WBL recognizes that the implementation and enforcement of laws are critical barriers to gender equality. Gaps between laws on the books and actual practice restrict the full realization of women’s rights and opportunities. To present a fuller picture of the legal environment for women, Women, Business and the Law 2024 introduces a new framework for measuring the implementation gap. It analyzes laws—de jure— and examines the existence of frameworks supporting implementation of the law and gauges experts’ opinions on the outcome of the law for women—de facto.

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Women, Business and the Law (WBL) focuses on the formal legal and regulatory environment determining whether women can open their own businesses or work. Although many women in developing economies start businesses or work in the informal economy, a goal of this project is to define some of the features of the legal framework that make it more difficult for women to transition from the informal to the formal economy. Further, to maintain comparability across economies, WBL includes an assumption that the woman in question is employed in the formal sector. However, many of the indicators have direct relevance for women who work in the informal sector, for example laws affecting women’s ability to own or inherit property, or protections against domestic violence. Indirectly, legal protections affecting the formal sector provide a foundation for economic inclusion and offer incentives for women to be employed in or start businesses in the formal sector. 

Women, Business and the Law (WBL) data is based on codified laws only and in some cases, in common law countries, legal precedent. Uncodified religious or customary practices are not reflected in the data. Unwritten, social or cultural norms—which may have a large impact on women’s lives—are also not considered. The existence of a statutory law is generally necessary for WBL to assess whether women are granted equal rights as men. For example, under the Assets indicator, WBL does not assign a positive score when property rights are solely governed by uncodified customary law (which often discriminates against women). This limitation ensures that the indicators remain actionable, because the law is what policymakers can change.

First, WBL 1.0 includes only one pillar of legal index, while WBL 2.0 includes three pillars: legal frameworks, supportive frameworks, and expert opinions.

Second, WBL 1.0 legal score includes eight indicators structured around women’s interactions with the law as they begin, progress through, and end their careers:  Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension. WBL 2.0 legal frameworks score introduces two new indicators: Safety, measuring frameworks addressing violence against women, and Childcare, measuring frameworks for the availability, affordability and quality of childcare.

The graph below summarizes the change. For more information, please refer to the methodology page.

Women, Business and the Law 2024 was the last year in which both the WBL 1.0 and WBL 2.0 index were published side by side. The new WBL 2.0 three-tiered approach, which focuses on legal frameworks, supportive frameworks, and expert opinions, reveals important gaps and demonstrates that the perceptions of experts on the status of women’s rights are not always in line with what is needed to implement those rights in practice. Next year (WBL 2026), WBL will collect data in accordance with the three pillars described in a forthcoming Methodology Handbook and finalize this new WBL index to deliver more comprehensive data to inform policy dialogue and reform, thereby allowing more women to realize their rights and boosting economic inclusion and labor force participation worldwide.

WBL and B-READY both address aspects of gender equality, but their focuses are distinct:

WBL focuses on laws and policy mechanisms that create the enabling environment for women’s economic opportunities. It evaluates laws and regulations and assesses whether implementation mechanisms exist to bridge the gap between policy and practice. WBL also uses expert insights to gauge the impact of laws on women’s lives.

B-READY collects data on gender primarily on whether government institutions and services support regulations. It focuses on gender-disaggregated data (e. g., in entrepreneurship, utility access, labor disputes, and land ownership), gender-targeted programs for women entrepreneurs (e.g., incubators and accelerators), and gender-sensitive regulations (e.g., in public procurement and trade). 

In summary, WBL provides a comprehensive assessment of how economies support women’s economic opportunities through legal frameworks and the practical implementation of these laws. B-READY, on the other hand, focuses on public service delivery to address gender-specific challenges. Together, both projects offer distinct yet complementary insights into how laws and institutions influence women’s economic empowerment.

1. Questionnaire design and systems configuration (December–April). During this phase, the WBL team designs the questionnaires that will be used to collect data and partners with IT colleagues to configure the systems for survey distribution, contributor relationship management, and data management.
2. Data collection in 190 economies (April–September). During this phase, questionnaires are distributed to private sector Expert Contributors and public sector respondents, as well as World Bank Group staff.
3. Desk research, data validation, and data review (April–September). During this phase, the WBL team validates the responses received with the relevant law, regulation, or policy mechanism, accessed through desk research. The validated data go through several layers of review to ensure quality and accuracy.
4. Score computation, data analysis, and report drafting (September–January). During this phase, the WBL team computes the scores for each indicator, topic, and pillar index. The scores are then analyzed and highlights are presented in the draft report. The final data set and report then undergo a process of Bank-wide Review.
5. Publication and dissemination (February–onward). Following Bank-wide Review, the report is finalized and prepared for publication along with the final data set. The WBL team then engages in dissemination activities to present the findings from the latest report and data set.