Women, Business and the Law (WBL) is a World Bank Group project collecting data on the laws and policy mechanisms that measure the enabling environment for women’s economic opportunity. Since 2009, Women, Business and the Law has been enhancing the study of gender equality and informing discussions on improving women's economic opportunities and empowerment. The dataset offers objective and measurable benchmarks for global progress toward gender equality. Comparable across economies, the data is useful for research and policy discussions on improving women's economic opportunities. This year, the study presents two sets of data: Women, Business and the Law 1.0 and an expanded version, Women, Business and the Law 2.0.
Women, Business and the Law 1.0 covers 190 economies and eight topics relevant to women's economic participation. Women, Business and the Law 2.0 introduces a new framework for measuring the implementation gap. It analyzes laws—de jure— and examines the existence of frameworks supporting implementation of the law and gauges experts’ opinions on the outcome of the law for women—de facto. Women, Business and the Law 2.0 introduces two new indicators – Safety and Childcare – and revises its ongoing indicators.
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.