Page 32 - BNE_magazine_04_2019

32 I Central Europe bne April 2019
CEE/CIS countries outperform income peers in terms of gender equality at work
Clare Nuttall in Glasgow
Countries in the CEE/CIS region typically outperform other coun- tries in the same income brackets when it comes to gender equality in laws concerning the workplace, a World Bank report shows.
Disastrous demographics – a combina- tion of natural decline and mass emigra- tion – and tightening labour markets are likely to keep up the pressure on govern- ments across the region to encourage women (and other groups such as early retirees and young people) to enter and remain in the workforce.
The report, Women, Business and the Law 2019: A Decade of Reform, exam- ines ten years of data to reveal how
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women’s employment and entrepreneur- ship are affected by legal discrimination. It talks of how women must navigate discriminatory laws and regulations
at every point in their careers, limiting their equality of opportunity.
The ranking is based on eight indicators that are structured around women’s interactions with the law as they begin, progress through and end their careers: Going Places, Starting a Job, Getting Paid, Getting Married, Having Children, Running a Business, Managing Assets and Getting a Pension.
“The data show there has been great progress towards legal gender equal- ity over the past decade,” said World
Bank Group interim president Kristalina Georgieva in the introduction to the report. During this period, the global average score rose by 4.65 points to 74.71 thanks to 274 reforms to laws and regulations increasing gender equality in 131 economies.
However, Georgieva adds, “the average global score is 74.71, indicating that
a typical economy only gives women three-quarters the rights of men in the measured areas.”
Six economies – Belgium, Denmark, France, Latvia, Luxembourg and Sweden – score 100, meaning that women are on equal legal standing with men across all eight indicators in these economies.