Methodology

Women, Business and the Law measures legal differences between men’s and women’s access to economic opportunities in 190 economies. Thirty-five aspects of the law are scored across eight indicators of four or five binary questions. Each indicator represents a different phase of a woman’s career. The methodology was designed as an easily replicable measure of the legal environment for women as entrepreneurs and employees. We update the data based on feedback from respondents with expertise in laws on family, labor and violence against women. 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. 

View all indicators below or download the complete questionnaires used to collect data for the 2023 publication related to Family, Labor and Violence Against Women. For more information, check the Data Notes for Women, Business and the Law 2023, and also see our Frequently Asked Questions. For data revisions, click here.