Women, Business and the Law 2012: Removing Barriers to Economic Inclusion

Joint event with the American Bar Association
Jan 17th, 10:30 to 12:00 - Room F- L-109IFC

The report finds that while 36 economies reduced legal differences between men and women, 103 out of 141 economies studied still impose legal differences on the basis of gender in at least one of the report’s key indicators. Join us to discuss the main results of the report.

PANELISTS:
Caren Grown , Senior Gender Advisor at U.S. Agency for International Development

Lelia Mooney, Deputy Rule of Law Officer, ABA Section of International Law; Director, Partners for Democratic Change

Aileen Pisciotta, Co-Founder and Chair, IMPOWR

Rita Ramalho, Program Manager, Enterprise Analysis, World Bank Group

MODERATOR:
Carmen Niethammer, Strategy and Knowledge Specialist, Women in Business, IFC

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.

The report measures such things as woman’s legal capacity 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 economies they cannot be legally recognized as head of household.

Find out more at: http://wbl.worldbank.org 

Please RSVP by Friday, 13 January to: WBL@worldbank.org - Tel: 202 473 04 82