News & Events

Methodology-Workshop-2025

WBL 2025 Methodology Workshop

The Women, Business and the Law (WBL) team is hosting 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.

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.

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.

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

CSW68

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.

DevPodcast, gender 2024

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.

Message-by-Minister-Anand-of-Canada-WBL24-launch

Message by Minister Anand of Canada

Watch the video message from Minister Anand, who serves as the President of the Treasury Board of Canada, commemorating the launch of WBL 2024.

Message-by-SG-of-Inter-Parliamentary-Union

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.

Gender-Equality-Livable-Planet

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.

Blog-WBL2023

Watch the replay for the past report launches

WBL news spotlight

Gender_Equality_2030

Gender equality: why we could be worse off in 2030

According to the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law 2024 report, which measures gender equality before the law, women enjoy about two-thirds of the rights of men, and nowhere in the world do they have equal legal rights across all indicators.
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Decididas Summit

Decididas Summit highlights the value of having women leaders in Latin America

Ana Tribin, Senior Economist at the World Bank, shared Women, Business and the Law data: 60–67% of countries in the region lack laws ensuring equal pay. In Brazil and Peru, women earn 25% less than men; in Mexico, 22% less for the same work.
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Women's Political Participation

Why the private sector should care about women's political representation

Politics matter. Women are more likely to work when protected by laws against discrimination, flexible hours, and childcare support—policies more common in countries where women hold legislative and cabinet roles, a new report finds.
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Women, Business and the Law 2024

Ensuring Women’s Full and Equal Participation in the Economy