Providing equal rights to women and men is fundamental to achieving gender equality. For generations, women’s rights movements have fought to make this a reality. For example, while it was not the case a century ago, today most women around the world have the right to vote. But many other laws affecting economic opportunity and financial and social inclusion continue to treat men and women differently.

On a broad set of legal rights, the average woman today is afforded only three-quarters of the rights the average man enjoys. The World Bank's Women, Business and the Law Index informs SDG target 5.1 (End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere) and measures SDG indicator 5.1.1 by analyzing laws and regulations that affect women’s employment and entrepreneurship in 190 economies.

The Women, Business and the Law explores 35 legal questions in all. The legal rights are divided among eight indicators across various themes (Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension) . Each indicator asks four or five questions about the presence or absence of laws and regulations that seek to provide equality of socio-economic opportunity between women and men. For example, Marriage includes the questions, ‘Is there legislation specifically addressing domestic violence?’ and ‘Does a woman have the same rights to remarry as a man?’. A perfect score of 100 on the index represents equal rights for women and men in the set of legal rights covered.

North America and Europe and Central Asia have come closest to providing equal rights to women and men, with overall scores of 96 and 90 respectively in 2019, marked improvements from 67 and 56 in 1970.

For example, in 1970 only two economies, both in Europe and Central Asia, had a law mandating equal remuneration for work of equal value. In 2019 it was the law in 38 of the region’s 49 economies.

Some regions have reformed more in certain indicators, while lagging on others. Latin America and the Caribbean has almost entirely reformed the Assets indicator governing property and inheritance, while South Asia lags with a score of 55 out of 100. But for Marriage, South Asia has improved by 33 percent from 52 to 70 between 1970 and 2019.

Globally, average female labor force participation is 52% and has changed little since 1990. But there are disparities across countries. Variations in economic conditions, human capital investment, and laws and norms facilitate or hinder women’s employment.

In some countries women face legal barriers and gender discrimination when seeking a job and are not protected from sexual harassment in the workplace. Recent research indicates that laws can be associated with women's decisions to enter and remain in the labor force. Economies that receive a score of 100 in the Workplace on average have higher female labor force participation. Laws other than those related to the Workplace may also influence a woman’s decision to participate in the labor force.

Pay includes laws that mandate equal remuneration for work of equal value and allow access to the same types of jobs and same hours of work for women and men. These laws ensure that women can earn as much as men—paid work hours and jobs that pay well.

The Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals 2020 presents interactive storytelling and data visualizations about the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. It highlights trends for selected targets within each goal and introduces concepts about how some SDGs are measured. Where data is available, it also highlights the emerging impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the SDGs.

The Atlas draws from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators database, as well as from a wide variety of relevant data sources from scientists and other researchers worldwide.
We hope readers will find this third edition in the Atlas series engaging and informative, and will be inspired to discover, understand and visualize progress towards achieving the SDGs.

The Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals 2020 was produced by the Development Economics Data Group (DECDG) of the World Bank, in collaboration with various units across the World Bank. The World Bank Group’s Partnership Fund for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG Fund) provided generous financial support.