News & Events

WBL 2025 Methodology Workshop

The Women, Business and the Law (WBL) team hosted a three-day workshop aiming to provide an in-depth understanding of WBL topics, including their methodology and scoring and the relationship between legal frameworks, supportive frameworks and expert perception pillars.

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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.

IEA-WB Conference: Gender Norms and the Law

This conference offers an opportunity for researchers to present findings of their research on the relationship between gender norms and legal frameworks that shape economic opportunities for both men and women, including latest research by the Women, Business and the Law project.

Women, Business and the Law at the Spring Meetings 2025's Data Playground

Discover how equal opportunity for women can unlock global economic growth in this inspiring talk. The World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law project uses legal data and real-world stories to illustrate women's economic opportunities, and lift entire nations.

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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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Women, Business and the Law 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.

Reuters: Closing gender gap could lift global GDP more than 20%, World Bank ...

Read Reuters article on WBL 2024, also syndicated in: US News & World Report, AOL, Business Day (Zambia), Business Times (Singapore), Terra Brazil; Folha de Sáo Paulo; Invest Max (Brazil); ND TV World; etc.

Recent events and updates

Drivers and Barriers for Legal Gender Equality in Europe and Central Asia (Russian)

Women, Business and the Law and the Women’s Entrepreneurship Development Foundation partnered to co-host a webinar on the state of women’s economic opportunities in the Europe and Central Asia region, highlighting regional good practice examples and opportunities for reforms.

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CSW 68 Event: Engaging Women as Leaders to End Poverty on a Livable Planet

Watch the reply of the 68th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women as we discuss how to engage women as leaders to end poverty on a livable planet.

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Development Podcast: The journey towards gender equality: are laws on the books enough?

Discover how closing the gender gap can benefit society on the special episode of the Development Podcast.

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Message by Minister Anand of Canada

Watch the video message from Minister Anand, who now serves as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, commemorating the launch of WBL 2024.

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Message by Secretary General Chungong of Inter-Parliamentary Union

Watch the video message celebrating the launch of WBL 2024 from Secretary General Chungong of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

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To End Poverty on a Livable Planet, We Need Gender Equality

Gender equality is critically important to ending poverty. Why? It benefits not only women, but also societies and entire economies.

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Watch the replay for the past report launches

WBL 2021 Launch | WBL 2022 Launch | WBL 2023 Launch

Events & Presentations Archive

WBL news spotlight

Women's Emancipation Still a Dream, World Bank Provides Proof

Citing the World Bank's Women, Business, and the Law 2024 report, no country in the world provides equal opportunities for women, especially in the workplace. According to the report, women enjoy, on average, only 64 percent of the legal protections compared to men

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The State Of Women Entrepreneurs: Reports Show Optimism And Growth

A new report by the Cherie Blair Foundation, Intuit, and the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law shows women own 47% of businesses in Latin America, 44% in East Asia, and 30% in Sub-Saharan Africa

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Digital inclusion: $5 trillion opportunity for women entrepreneurs

A new report by the Cherie Blair Foundation, Intuit, and WBL shows that while 92% of women entrepreneurs in LMICs own smartphones, 45% lack regular internet access—limiting their use of e-commerce, mobile money, social media, and AI tools

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Explore Recent Media Coverage

Women, Business and the Law 2024

Ensuring Women’s Full and Equal Participation in the Economy