Women, Business and the Law 2024
By Mahlet Mesganaw, Partner at DMLF
Women, Business and the Law (WBL) 2024 is the 10th in a series of studies measuring the laws that affect women’s economic opportunities in 190 economies of the world. This year’s edition will be out in March 2024. For more than a decade, WBL has analyzed the laws and regulations that affect women’s economic opportunity. However, laws alone are not enough to improve gender equality. Their implementation and enforcement are critical to the full realization of women’s rights.
As a result, WBL 2.0 was introduced. The new additions as indicators are Safety and Childcare. The previous namely mobility, workplace, pay, marriage, parenthood, entrepreneurship, asset and pension remain intact. This year’s edition goes beyond what is there in the law; it further looks into implementation on the ground.
This 2024 edition of WBL is coined in two versions of the legal index. The first WBL 1.0 is to update data within reforms implemented from Oct 2,2022 to Oct 1,2023. WBL 2.0 on the other hand is a new index that includes additional indicators of safety and childcare.
The WBL 2.0 looks into a)the legal framework (measures the state of the law within a given economy in relation to a specific right), b)Supportive framework (capture the existence of policy mechanisms to implement rights) and c) Expert Opinions( shed light on the progress towards realizing a particular right).
Consequently, Ethiopia scored 80.0 on WBL 1.0 legal framework but scored 60 on WBL 2.0 legal framework score, 30.8 on WBL 2.0 Supportive Framework and 43.1 on WBL 2.0 Expert Opinion Score. Italy has the highest WBL 2.0 legal framework score of 95.0, whereas 15.0 on WBL 2.0 legal framework score is by West Bank and Gaza.
For details on the data you may click here.