Women, Business and the Law

Women, Business and the Law 2021 is the seventh in a series of annual studies measuring the laws and regulations that affect women’s economic opportunity in 190 economies. Amidst a global pandemic that threatens progress toward gender equality, the report identifies barriers to women’s economic participation and encourages reform of discriminatory laws. This year, the study also includes important findings on government responses to the COVID-19 crisis and pilot research related to childcare and women’s access to justice. This file contains *Women, Business and the Law *(WBL) data for 190 economies for 1970 to 2020 (reporting years 1971 to 2021). Data is provided for 35 data points across 8 scored indicators. The WBL index scores are based on the average of each economy’s scores for the 8 topics included in this year’s aggregate score. A higher score indicates more gender equal laws. The scores for previous years have been recalculated to account for data revisions and methodology changes. For more information about the methodology for data collection, scoring and analysis, and to use a new data visualization tool, visit http://wbl.worldbank.org.