Gendered laws and women in the workforce

This paper provides an insight into how gender discrimination by the law affects women’s economic opportunity and charts the evolution of legal inequalities over five decades. Using the World Bank’s newly constructed Women, Business and the Law database, it documents large and persistent gender inequalities, especially with regard to pay and treatment of parenthood.  It also explores positive correlations between more equal laws pertaining to women in the workforce and more equal labor market outcomes.