The fight against gender inequality is at its lowest in 20 years, according to the World Bank

The pace of reforms aimed at reducing inequalities between women and men has slowed sharply in 2022 to reach its lowest level in 20 years, according to a report published Thursday, March 2 by the World Bank. The index measuring the progress of reforms in favor of greater legal equality has only increased by 0.5 points and stands at 77.1 points. Concretely, “this means that women only enjoy on average barely 77% of the legal rights granted to men”writes the institution.

A total of 34 reforms were carried out over the past year, in 18 countries, making it the lowest total since the turn of the century. At the current pace of reform, a young woman entering the workforce today will not achieve legal equality upon retirement in most countries, according to the analysis.

A risk on “economic growth”

To establish its report, the World Bank studied all the laws and regulations voted or put in place in 190 countries in 2022, taking into account eight areas which “influence women’s participation in economic life” : mobility, work, remuneration, marriage, parenthood, entrepreneurship, assets and retirement.

VSThis situation is likely to hamper “economic growth at a critical time for the economyadds the World Bank. The institution estimates that legal equality would increase long-term GDP per capita by nearly 20% on average, with estimated global gains of $5 trillion to $6 trillion if women could create and develop new businesses as easily as men.