Women & Girls

Women, Business and the Law

This report provides an overview of the laws and regulations that affect women’s economic opportunity in 190 economies. It presents eight indicators structured around women’s interactions with the law as they progress through their lives and careers: Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension. Finally, the report identifies the barriers to women’s economic participation and encourages the reform of discriminatory laws.

 

When schools shut: Gendered impacts of COVID-19 school closures

This study exposes failure to factor in gender in COVID-19 education responses and widening gaps in access to quality education following school closures. Citing some 90 countries, the study shows that despite governments' and partners’ swift responses to school closures, remote learning strategies in most countries failed to account for gender-based considerations and barriers that children face at home.

Youth Think Tank: What Makes Young Women Successful in STEM Careers?

This report focuses on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and presents findings drawn from the narratives of over 150 young female STEM professionals in seven countries. The report showcases how confidence in their own abilities helps women deal with setbacks. At the same time, the report highlights the critical role that support from parents, mentors, and partners play in women’s success in STEM.

In Search of Equity: Exploring Africa's Gender Gap in Startup Finance

This report presents a first diagnostic of Africa’s gender gap in financing early-stage ventures in the digital economy (start-ups). The report’s findings indicate that since 2013, only 3 percent of total funding for Africa’s tech start-ups went to all-female founding teams, compared with 76 percent of funding for all-male teams.

Profiting from Parity: Unlocking the Potential of Women's Business in Africa

This report seeks to focus attention on the challenges that Africa’s women entrepreneurs face and identify practical solutions. The report draws on new, high-quality, household and firm-level data to present the clearest evidence to date about the barriers to growth and profitability faced by women entrepreneurs. It goes beyond looking at contextual, endowment and household restrictions in isolation, and, through deep-dive analysis, uncovers new evidence on how social norms, networks and household-level decision making contribute to business performance.

Addressing Employment Obstacles For Young Syrian Refugee Women

This Note builds on research covering the three countries with the highest concentration of Syrian refugees displaced since 2011: Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon. It is intended to inform policymakers and practitioners on the barriers that Syrian refugees, especially women, face in securing work to earn a livelihood. This Note highlights initiatives designed to address those barriers, but does not enumerate all of them.

Jobs Interventions for Young Women in the Digital Economy

This Jobs Solutions Note identifies practical solutions for development practitioners to proactively integrate gender inclusion in digital jobs programs. Based on curated knowledge and evidence for a specific topic and relevant to jobs, the Jobs Solutions Notes are not intended to be exhaustive; they provide key lessons, solutions and approaches synthesized from the experiences of the World Bank Group and partners.