No Women Allowed

While the United States struggles with issues related to women in combat roles in the military and while women still earn less money than men in too many comparable jobs, we are at least making progress towards equality. It is still our national goal. And while some progress is being made worldwide in raising equality standards in the workplace, we have a long way to go. On September 24^th, the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation released the third survey report looking at the impact of legal restrictions against women on economic and employment matters: Women, Business and the Law 2014: Removing Restrictions to Enhance Gender Equality. The numbers and descriptions in that report are eye-opening, and today I will present some of the summary conclusions provided by the World Bank on this study over the past two years… with some results gathered from prior reports as well.

To no one’s surprise, the greatest restrictions and exclusions against women as to property rights and in the workforce are found in Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. But surprisingly, “[t]he report finds economies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia have the most extensive lists of jobs women cannot do. For example, in the Russian Federation women cannot drive trucks in the agricultural sector, in Belarus they cannot be carpenters and in Kazakhstan they cannot be welders. These restrictions may have arisen from a desire to protect women, but can limit their employment options. The report shows economies with the most job restrictions on women have lower female participation in the formal labor force.”

Equally surprising is where the study did find change. For example, of the 143 countries examined, 44 nations liberalized 48 laws restricting property and employment rights for women. “Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, the Philippines and the Slovak Republic had the most reforms. Among the reforms, husbands can no longer unilaterally stop their wives from working in Côte d’Ivoire and Mali, the Philippines has lifted restrictions on night work for women, and the Slovak Republic increased the percentage of wages paid during maternity leave…

“Between 1960 and 2010, more than half the restrictions on women’s property rights and ability to conduct legal transactions were removed in … 100 economies examined. Restrictions in three regions – Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and East Asia and the Pacific – were cut in half. While some restrictions were removed in South Asia and in the Middle East and North Africa, these two regions reformed the least.

“Another major innovation in the report is new data on the existence and scope of laws on two areas of violence against women: sexual harassment and domestic violence. Covering 100 economies, the data show that prohibitions against sexual harassment in the workplace are widespread – 78 economies have legislation and over half of these criminalize the behavior. Legislation on domestic violence is also widespread –76 economies have laws prohibiting domestic violence. The region with the fewest laws on domestic violence is the Middle East and North Africa.” If we don’t look at the issues, don’t report unfair conditions, the likelihood of positive change is reduced. This notion of gender inequality does not go away unless with keep pushing.

I’m Peter Dekom, and at least we are moving in the right direction, perhaps not fast enough, but there is progress.