With findings of a recently released World Bank report indicating that Caribbean and Latin American women have less than three quarters of the legal rights of men, Carmen Reinhart, senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank Group, says it’s time “to level the playing field”.

According to findings of the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law 2022 report, an estimated 2.4 billion women of working age are not afforded equal economic opportunity. This as some 178 countries maintain legal barriers to prevent their full economic participation.

Data presented in the report found that, in 86 countries, women face some form of job restriction and, in 95 countries, the concept of equal pay for equal work was not guaranteed.

Given this, Mari Pangestu, World Bank managing director of development policy and partnerships, stated: “While progress has been made, the gap between men’s and women’s expected lifetime earnings globally is US$172 trillion, nearly two times the world’s annual GDP.”

Despite the disproportionate effect on women’s lives and livelihood from the global pandemic, the report noted that only 23 countries reformed their laws in 2021 to take much-needed steps towards advancing women’s economic inclusion.

Speaking on the matter, Pangestu argued: “As we move forward to achieve green, resilient and inclusive development, governments need to accelerate the pace of legal reforms so that women can realise their full potential and benefit fully and equally.”

Globally, the highest number of reforms were made in the parenthood, pay, and workplace indicators.

The gains in the parenthood indicator have largely been around paternity leave and shared parental leave. Across the world, 118 economies guarantee 14 weeks of paid leave for mothers, while 114 of the economies measured mandate paid leave for fathers, albeit with a median duration of one week.

In light of the low average score for the parenthood indicator index (55.6), Reinhart argued the need to accelerate reforms in this area.

“Women cannot achieve equality in the workplace if they are on an unequal footing at home,” stated the World Bank senior vice president.

She added: “That means leveling the playing field and ensuring that having children doesn’t mean women are excluded from full participation in the economy and realising their hopes and ambitions.”

As it relates to workplace indicators, many reforms focused on protecting against sexual harassment in employment, prohibiting gender discrimination, increasing paid leave for new parents, and removing job restrictions for women.

The World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law 2022 report measures laws and regulations across 190 countries in eight areas impacting women’s economic participation, namely mobility, workplace, pay, marriage, parenthood, entrepreneurship, assets, and pensions.

The data provided by the report offers objective and measurable benchmarks for global progress toward gender equality.