Nine out of ten nations put barriers to women working, according to a World Bank study presented at ESADE
‘Only 18 countries can boast of having no legal restriction on women’s access to jobs and these nations include Spain, Holland, and Canada .... as well as Armenia, South Africa, and Peru. This means that job equality is not always linked to the per capita income of a nation,’ said Augusto López-Claros, director of the Global Analysis and Indicators at the World Bank. He was offering the main conclusion of the new version of ‘Women, Business and the Law’ published by the World Bank – and presented for the first time in Spain by ESADE and the consultancy Comerciando Global. Also attending the presentation were representatives of the Spanish Ministry of Health, Social Services, and Equality, as well as fund managers Aberdeen Asset Managers. The report examines legislation on women’s access to jobs in 173 economies and highlights that 90% of countries impose barriers. ‘Strange obstacles exist around the world: women cannot drive metro trains in Russia, or have jobs that involve lifting more than 25 kilos in France,’ explained the report’s author López-Claros.
‘We analysed constitutions, labour legislation, and civil codes – and we found numerous barriers and restrictions that reveal a strong paternalistic and protective attitude that is often obsolete,’ explained López-Claros. ‘There is no doubt that more obstacles means lower school attendance, lower rates of employment and entrepreneurship, and greater wage gaps,’ he added.
- Only 18 economies are free from legal restrictions on women working: Armenia, Canada, Spain, Estonia, Hungary, Kosovo, Malta, Mexico, Namibia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Peru, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Slovak Republic, Serbia, South Africa and Taiwan.
- Women in the Middle East and North Africa suffer the most limitations: including regulations that prevent married women from becoming head of households, obtaining a passport without their husband’s permission, and applying for jobs. This region includes 15 of the most restrictive economies in the world: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Brunei, Mauritania and Sudan.
- Barriers to the economic advancement of women are also found in South Asia, a region that lags in implementing reforms to encourage greater gender equality (just three reforms were made over the past two years).
- In sub-Saharan Africa 18 reforms were made in the past two years. The region includes nearly a third of the 30 most restrictive economies; but also 2 of the 18 economies that have no legislative gender barriers of any kind.
- Reforms have continued in Latin America and the Caribbean and almost all economies in the region now have legislation protecting women from domestic violence – although application remains a challenge. However, many restrictions remain in place.
- Europe and Central Asia stand out as among the most advanced regions in terms of property rights and inheritance, access to credit, and maternity leave. Nevertheless, labour laws continue to unnecessarily limit women’s access to many jobs.
Significant progress has been made in East Asia and the Pacific in the economic inclusion of women, including the enactment of labour legislation. The economies of this region also feature innovative mechanisms for access to credit, and tax policies that support economic opportunities for women.
Begoña Suárez, Deputy Director General of Social Services and Equality at the Spanish Ministry of Health, Social Services, and Equality, explained that: ‘the absence of legal restrictions does not imply that there are no gaps, such as low activity rates, unemployment, and horizontal and vertical segregation in sectors and organisations. These produce a huge wage gap.’
According to Joaquín Cava, lecturer at ESADE Business & Law School, the key to gender equality in developed countries is ‘to train women in handling office politics. Women are efficient and work well, but that’s only part of success.’
Finally, Ana Guzmán Quintana, managing director of Iberia Aberdeen Asset Managers, stressed that: ‘half the population are women and that means women represent half of the available talent. If equality is achieved it has been estimated that world GDP would grow by 12%’.