Workplace equality exists nowhere: World Bank

Full workplace equality does not exist anywhere in the world and only a tiny fraction of women live in countries with a labor market that comes close to it, the World Bank said 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 modernized 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 equality laws that have been passed but also public services created to help women in the workplace and ensure these laws are enforced.

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.

And ensuring equal workplace access for women benefits not just them but society in general, the report argued.

Indeed, in countries where women have more opportunities, men’s rate of labor 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 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 or 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.