Women, Business and the Law 2024 Report

Women, Business and the Law 2024 Report

News: Recently, Women, Business and the Law 2024 report was released by the World Bank.

About:
• The “Women, Business and the Law 2024” report is a comprehensive study that analyzes laws and regulations affecting women’s economic opportunity in 190 economies. It is the 10th in the series and provides an in-depth analysis of the challenges obstructing women’s entry into the global workforce.
• The report is structured around eight indicators that align with the economic decisions women make at various stages of their lives. These indicators are Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension.
• The data in the report are used to build evidence of the relationship between legal gender equality and women’s entrepreneurship and employment.

Key Findings:

Legal Rights to Women
• Women enjoy less than two-thirds or 64 percent of the of the legal rights available to men.
• The lower number reflects the major deficiencies in Safety and Childcare.
• Deficiencies in these areas discourage women from entering the global workforce.

Pay
• Women earn just 77 cents for every dollar paid to men.
• In all, 92 economies lack provisions mandating equal pay for work of equal value; 20 prohibit a woman from working at night; and 45 prohibit a woman from working in jobs deemed dangerous.

Nationality rights
• In 28 economies, a woman cannot pass her nationality to children in the same way as a man.
• In 50 economies, a woman does not enjoy an equal right to confer citizenship on her foreign spouse.
• Such discriminatory provisions in nationality laws harm a woman’s economic opportunities, limiting her inheritance and property rights and employment opportunities.

Retirement
• In 62 economies, the age at which men and women can retire is not the same, with women retiring earlier than men.

India’s performance
• India’s rank has marginally improved to 113, with a score of 74.4 percent.
• Indian women have just 60 percent of the legal rights compared to men, slightly below the global average of 64.2 percent.
• India receives one of its lowest scores in the indicator evaluating laws impacting women’s pay.
• India scored higher than both the global and South Asian averages. The lowest indicator in frameworks was childcare.

Key recommendations
• Accelerate efforts to reform laws and enact public policies that empower women to work and start a business.
• Improve laws related to women’s safety, access to childcare, and business opportunities.
• Enact legal reforms that mandate equal pay for work of equal value, and lift restrictions on a woman’s ability to work in industrial jobs.
• Expand maternity and paternity leave provisions, and prohibit the firing of pregnant women.
• Prohibit sexual harassment in the workplace, in public spaces, in education, and online.
• Provide financial support for parents with young children, and establish quality standards for childcare services.
• Implement legally binding quotas for women on corporate boards, and mandate gender-sensitive criteria for public procurement processes.
• Ensure equal retirement benefits for women, accounting for periods of work absences related to childcare.