Even as women across the globe still have to hurdle legal and regulatory barriers to fully participate in economic activities, Philippine women have been enjoying more economic opportunities in the past two years.
“Women, Business and the Law 2012: Removing Barriers to Economic Inclusion” by the World Bank and the International Finance Commission (IFC) finds that while 36 economies reduced legal differences between men and women, 103 out of 141 economies studied still impose gender-based legal barriers women still have to overcome.
The joint report counts the Philippines among the countries that had undertaken the most reforms to increase economic opportunities for women.
Among these reforms, considered the most significant is the lifting of restrictions on night work for Filipina workers.
Other countries cited positively by the report are Cote d’Ivoire, Mali and the Slovak Republic. Husbands can no longer unilaterally stop their wives from working in Cote d’Ivoire and Mali while wages paid women during maternity leave was increased in the Slovak Republic.
The report also identified 41 law and regulatory reforms enacted between June 2009 and March 2011 likely to enhance women’s role in the economy.
Globally, women represent 49.6 percent of the population but only 40.8 percent of the workforce in the formal sector. Legal differences between men and women may explain this gap. The report shows that economies with greater legal differentiation between men and women have, on average, lower female participation in the formal labor force.
“Competitiveness and productivity have much to do with the efficient allocation of resources, including human resources,” said Augusto Lopez-Claros, Director, Global Indicators and Analysis, World Bank Group. “The economy suffers when half of the world’s population is prevented from fully participating. It is certainly no surprise that the world’s most competitive economies are those where the opportunity gap between women and men is the narrowest.”
The report measures such things as a woman’s ability to sign a contract, travel abroad, manage property, and interact with public authorities and the private sector. In all economies, married women face more legal differentiations than unmarried women. In 23 economies, married women cannot legally choose where to live, and in 29 they cannot be legally recognized as head of household.
The report can be accessed at wbl.worldbank.org.
Photo: from i.haymarket.net.au
