The World Bank Group’s Women, Business and the Law 2018 report is now finalized and available online. The fifth edition in a series of biennial reports, the publication measures gender equality in the law across 189 economies. It identifies legal obstacles to women who engage in economic activity around the world, encourages the reform of discriminatory laws, and tracks global progress toward achieving gender equality.
The report analyzes newly-collected data across seven indicators: accessing institutions, using property, getting a job, providing incentives to work, going to court, building credit, and protecting women from violence. The data show the challenge many women face in the quest for economic opportunity. One hundred and four economies still prevent women from working in certain jobs, simply because they are women. In 59 economies, there are no laws on sexual harassment in the workplace. And in 18 economies, husbands can legally prevent their wives from working.
The report relies on the expertise of a global community of lawyers, judges, academics and civil society organizations to provide up-to-date information on their countries’ legal environment. SyCipLaw partner Leslie C. Dy contributed to the report.
For access to the full report and all the data collected for the report, please consult the project’s website at http://wbl.worldbank.org.
Leslie C. Dy specializes in employment and labor where she handles arbitration, litigation, and collective bargaining negotiations, among others. Her practice also includes corporate services, mergers and acquisitions, and civil litigation, particularly in product liability, family relations and estate planning and settlement.