Women, Business and the Law report is published
Legal and regulatory barriers for women in business have decreased in the last 50 years but there remains much to be done, the World Bank has found.
Women, Business and the Law 2014, the third of a series of reports by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, looks at the experiences of women entrepreneurs and employees in 143 economies.
It finds that economies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia have the most extensive list of jobs women cannot do.
However, 44 of the economies have made 48 legal reforms to boost opportunities for women in the last two years—husbands can no longer stop their wives from working in Côte d’Ivoire and Mali, while the Philippines has lifted restrictions on night work for women.
Augusto Lopez-Claros, a director at World Bank Group, says: “Although the progress has been uneven across the world, there is widespread recognition that the economic empowerment of women is crucial for competitiveness and prosperity.”
