Women restrained

World Bank Group’s Women, Business and the Law 2016 report finds women in many South Asian countries need their husbands’ permission to get jobs:

Women in South Asia continue to trail their peers in many other parts of the world, as discriminatory laws thwart their economic advancement, says the World Bank Group’s Women, Business and the Law 2016 report, released on September 9. The report, published every two years, examines laws that impede women’s employment and entrepreneurship in 173 economies throughout the world.

The 2016 edition expands coverage in South Asia from 5 to 8 economies, adding Afghanistan, Bhutan and the Maldives. Several economies from the South Asia region are among the most restrictive in the world in the dimensions measured affecting women’s entrepreneurship and employment. The region as a whole has been lagging in enacting reforms in the areas measured by the report, with only three reforms made in two economies in the past two years.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan, which is one of the most restrictive economies in the world, imposes more than 20 legal barriers to women’s economic inclusion. The report finds that in Afghanistan, married women cannot choose where to live, apply for a passport, or obtain a national ID card in the same way as married men. Women also cannot work in the same jobs as men.

India

In India, the region’s largest economy with 612 million women, job restrictions remain widespread, with women not allowed to work in mining or in jobs that require lifting weights above a certain threshold or working with glass. The law also prohibits women from jobs ‘involving danger to life, health or morals’.

In addition, there are no laws to protect women against sexual harassment in public places, protections which exist in 18 other economies around the world.

In the last two years, India undertook one reform in the areas monitored by the report. By introducing a law mandating at least one female member on the board of publicly listed companies, India became the only developing country and one of only nine countries in the world to mandate female inclusion on corporate boards.

Pakistan

In Pakistan, many restrictions on women prevail. In order to register a business, married women need to include their husband’s name, nationality, and address – and they need to do this in the presence of a witness. Women are also barred from working in many jobs, including those in factories and in mining. And there are no laws guaranteeing women equal remuneration for work of equal value and no laws mandating non-discrimination based on gender in hiring.

However, Pakistan issued 2 reforms in the past two years. It set the legal age of marriage for both boys and girls at 18 years and introduced criminal sanctions for men who contract marriage with a minor and anyone who performs, facilitates or permits underage marriage. Pakistan also introduced a 22 percent quota for women in local government.

Sri Lanka

Legal discrimination, which can affect female labour force participation, is also prevalent in Sri Lanka. Women are prohibited from working in the mining sector and restricted from certain tasks/functions in factories. Moreover, there are no laws against gender-based discrimination in hiring or access to credit.

Bangladesh

In Bangladesh women face job restrictions such as working in certain factory jobs or working in certain occupations, such as mining, and in Nepal, women cannot confer citizenship to their children or to their non-national spouse in the same way as men. This limits access to government services for some of the county’s most marginalized children.

Bhutan

And in Bhutan, according to the Companies Act, a woman director of a company must include her husband’s name, address and nationality within the company registry.

It analyzes legal differences on the basis of gender in 173 economies, covering seven areas: accessing institutions, using property, getting a job, providing incentives to work, building credit, going to court and protecting women from violence.

(The report is published every two years. The full report and accompanying datasets are available at http://wbl.worldbank.org About Women, Business and the Law)

Women, Business and the Law 2016:

FACT SHEET

The indicator on Getting a Job assesses restrictions on women’s work, such as prohibitions on working at night or in certain industries. This indicator also covers laws on work-related maternity, paternity and parental benefits. All the economies covered by Women, Business and the Law have labour regulations that treat men and women differently. Some of these differences may facilitate women’s participation in the workforce, but many prevent it.

Key Findings on this Indicator:

* In 100 economies women face gender-based job restrictions. Where this is the case, their income is likely to be lower relative to men’s income.

*In the Russian Federation women are prohibited from working in 456 specified jobs, including driving a truck carrying agricultural produce, woodworking and being a train driver.

* Women cannot work the same night hours as men in 29 economies.
*Recently Belarus reduced the number of jobs prohibited to women from 252 to 182.

* Jamaica lifted restrictions on women working at night.
* Taiwan, China removed restrictions on women working in mining, jobs deemed hazardous and jobs requiring heavy-lifting.

* The average length of paid maternity leave worldwide is 106 days, while the average length of paid paternity leave is only 7 days.

* Papua New Guinea, Suriname, Tonga and the United States are the only economies in the world that do not legally establish paid leave that a mother can take upon the birth of a child.

* In 51% of economies that establish paid maternity leave, the government pays for maternity benefits.

* In a further 19%, the government and employers share the payments.

* More economies are introducing paternity leave. Recently Hong Kong SAR, China; the Islamic Republic of Iran; Israel; the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Nicaragua introduced such leave. Parental leave is the least common type of leave. Just under one-third of economies provide for parental leave.

* 147 economies legally protect pregnant women from dismissal in employment and 96 economies guarantee mothers an equivalent position after maternity leave.

* Only 71 economies mandate equal remuneration for work of equal value and just 70 mandate non-discrimination in hiring based on gender. Mauritius and South Africa now mandate equal remuneration for work of equal value.

* 45 economies establish gender differences in the ages at which men and women can retire and receive full benefits. Such differences can negatively impact women by creating disparities in career prospects, lifetime earnings, pension benefits and retirement savings.

*Albania, Kazakhstan, São Tomé and Príncipe and Serbia passed legislation to remove gender differences in retirement ages so that women can retire and receive benefits at the same age as men.

Women, Business and the Law measures how laws, regulations and institutions differentiate between women and men in ways that may affect women’s incentives or capacity to work or to set up and operate a business. It analyzes legal differences on the basis of gender in 173 economies, covering seven areas: accessing institutions, using property, getting a job, providing incentives to work, building credit, going to court and protecting women from violence. The report is published every two years.