Women secured legal rights in nearly 30 countries last year in spite of facing disruption due to COVID-19. However, governments must take more steps to relax the disproportionate burden imposed on women during the pandemic, the World Bank said on Tuesday.
Nations should give priority to gender equality in economic recovery efforts, the bank said. It warned that progress on equal rights was posed with threats by heavier job losses, which have been sectors dominated by women, increased childcare and a surge in domestic violence.
“This pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities that disadvantage girls and women,” David Malpass, World Bank Group president, said in a statement accompanying the annual “Women, Business and the Law” report.
“Women should have the same access to finance and the same rights to inheritance as men and must be at the centre of our efforts toward an inclusive and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
A total of 27 countries made changes to laws or regulations to provide women more economic equality with men in 2019-20, as per the report. It ranks 190 nations on laws and regulations, which become stumbling blocks for women’s economic opportunities.
While countries in all of the world’s regions have made revisions in the new index, with most reforms revolving around pay and parenthood, women on average still have only access to about three quarters of the rights granted to men, the report found.
Interestingly, at least 40 countries presented extra benefit or leave policies to help employees strike a balance in their jobs, when it comes to the extra childcare needs created by coronavirus restrictions.
However, such measures were “few and far between” worldwide and will probably not go far enough to tackle the “motherhood penalty” many women face in the workplace, it said.
The report also brought forth separate data from a United Nations tool, which tracked pandemic responses, related to gender, found 70% of such measures addressing violence, with just 10% targeting women’s economic security.
Antonia Kirkland, the global lead on legal equality at women’s rights organisation Equality Now said the pandemic could result in “a backslide on various hard-won advances in women’s rights achieved in recent years.”
“This disruption is a unique opportunity for countries to rebuild more resilient, inclusive and prosperous economies,” she told.
“But this can only be achieved alongside the removal of sex discriminatory laws that prevent women from participating fully and equally in economic, social and family life.”
