Women, Business and the Law

Women, Business and the Law is a World Bank Group flagship initiative providing comparable data on laws and policies in 190 economies that shape women’s economic participation and drive growth. Since 2009, Women, Business and the Law has been enhancing the study of gender equality and informing discussions on improving women's economic opportunities and empowerment. The dataset offers objective and measurable benchmarks for global progress toward gender equality. Comparable across 190 economies, the data is useful for research and policy discussions on improving women's economic opportunities.For the latest report, datasets, research, and more — including detailed information on the methodology for data collection, scoring, and analysis, as well as in depth economy-level profiles — visit wbl.worldbank.org.This year, the study assesses women's economic rights and opportunities through three interconnected pillars: Legal Frameworks, which measures equality of rights and restrictions on women's work and entrepreneurship; Supportive Frameworks, which examines the policies, institutions, and services that enable implementation of those laws; and Enforcement Perceptions, which captures expert views on how effectively public authorities enforce legal rights in practice. Data is collected through three specialized survey questionnaires sent to more than 20,000 vetted experts, with all submissions validated against codified laws and official government sources.The 2026 edition assesses 10 key topics relevant to women's economic participation — Safety, Mobility, Work, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Childcare, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension — across each of the three pillars. With 4 indicators per topic, each pillar contains 40 indicators, for a total of 120 indicators. This balanced structure ensures that all dimensions of women's economic rights contribute consistently to an economy's overall score.WBL 2026 also introduces several methodological innovations to enhance precision and policy relevance. These include new indicators that capture emerging policy priorities, partial scoring to better reflect nuances and gradual progress, and an equal number of indicators across all pillars for more balanced measurement. Notably, the Enforcement Perceptions pillar now employs anchoring vignettes — asking experts to evaluate hypothetical scenarios before assessing their own economies — to harmonize responses across diverse contexts and make cross-economy comparisons more robust.For any questions, contact the team at [e-mail]