Women still face legal and regulatory hurdles on their way to full participation in the economy, according to “Women, Business and the Law 2012: Removing Barriers to Economic Inclusion”- a new report from the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Women represent 49.6% of the population but only 40.8% of the workforce in the formal sector – legal differences between men and women may explain this gap.
“The economy suffers when half of the world’s population is prevented from fully participating,” said World Bank Group global indicators and analysis director Augusto Lopez-Claros. “It is certainly no surprise that the world’s most competitive economies are those where the opportunity gap between women and men is the narrowest.”

While 36 economies had reduced legal differences between men and women – for example, 41 law and regulatory reforms enacted between June 2009 and March 2011 could enhance women’s economic opportunities, 103 out of 141 economies studied still imposed legal differences on the basis of gender in at least one of the report’s key indicators. The report measured issues such as a woman’s ability to sign a contract, travel abroad, manage property and interact with public authorities and the private sector.