The World Bank has voiced concern that nearly 2.4 billion women of working age still do not have the same rights as men according to a survey conducted in 190 countries.
The 2023 Women, Business and the Law (WBL) report looked at the barriers women face for economic participation as well as how to go about creating reform of discriminatory laws that may hold them back.
This year’s report has found that the global pace of reforms toward equal rights for women has fallen to a 20-year low, with only 34 gender-related legal reforms across 18 countries in 2022—the lowest number since 2001.
In 2022, the global average score on the World Bank’s WBL index rose just half a point to 77.1—indicating women, on average, enjoy barely 77 percent of the legal rights that men do.
This marks quite the roadblock for women’s economic growth and empowerment at a time the global economy is already suffering setbacks.
At this current pace, women entering the workforce today will retire before they’re ever able to gain the same rights as their male counterparts.
