WASHINGTON – Full workplace equality does not exist anywhere in the world, and only a tiny fraction of women lives in countries with a labour market that comes close to it, the World Bank said on Tuesday. 

Even when workplace equality laws are passed by lawmakers, they are truly enforced in only about half of all cases, the bank said in a report on women, business and the law.

“Even in economies that have modernised their laws, women still face constraints that shape the work they can do, the businesses they can start, and the safety they need to pursue opportunities,” said Indermit Gill, the lender’s chief economist.

The report assesses not only the equality laws that have been passed but also the public services created to support women in the workplace and to ensure their enforcement.

The bank insisted that reforms are needed because 1.2 billion young people, half of them women, will enter the workplace over the next decade.

“Many will come of age in regions where women face the biggest barriers, and where the GDP boost that would result from their participation is most needed,” said Tea Trumbic, the report’s lead author.

Ensuring equal workplace access for women does not benefits just women but society as a whole, the report argued.

Indeed, in countries where women have more opportunities, men’s rate of labour force participation is also higher, the report says.

Advanced-economy countries have conditions most closely resembling equality, with Spain at the top, this report says. Countries in the Middle East and the Pacific lag far behind. The most significant progress in reducing the workplace equality gap came in low-income and developing countries such as Egypt, Madagascar, and Somalia.

In these nations, efforts were made to ease restrictions on women entering certain fields, institute equal pay for equal work, and allow parental leave.

Altogether, nearly 70 countries approved around 100 reforms from 2023 to 2025, seeking to give women more access to the job market and business world. – Nampa/AFP