Women have on average only about two-thirds of the legal rights of men in the economy, fewer than half of them work or seek work compared with almost three-quarters of men, and 708 million women are kept out of the labour force by care responsibilities.
Updated October 14, 2026. Written from the sources listed below, not independently peer-reviewed.
Out of every 100 women in the world, how many live in an economy that gives them nearly full legal equality with men?
About two-thirds
Women's legal rights compared with men's
The average economy scores 67 out of 100 on laws for women's economic opportunity, 53 on their enforcement and 47 on supporting policies and services. Assessment of 190 economies, data as of October 2025.
Data year 2025. Source: World Bank, 2026
48.9% vs 73.1%
Labour force participation, women vs men
Share of women and men aged 15 and over who work or seek work worldwide. Women's rate is about 70% of men's. Modelled ILO estimates.
Data year 2025. Source: International Labour Organization, 2026
708 million
Women outside the labour force because of care
45% of all women outside the labour force cite care responsibilities as the reason, compared with 5% of men; 40 million men are outside the labour force for this reason.
Data year 2023. Source: International Labour Organization, 2024
Unit: % of women aged 15+
Modelled ILO estimates for the world, as published in World Bank Open Data (2026 update). Men's rate fell over the same period from 80.0% in 1990 to 73.1% in 2025, so the gap between women and men narrowed mainly because fewer men were in the labour force, not because more women were. Women's rate has hardly changed since 2023.
SDG 5 aims to end discrimination against women and give them equal rights to economic resources and equal opportunities for leadership by 2030. Between 2019 and 2025, 99 legal reforms advanced gender equality, but nearly half of 131 countries still restrict the jobs women can do. Women held 30.5% of managerial positions in 2025, and at the pace of the past decade equal representation in management would take more than 50 years.
In 2025, women's labour force participation rate was about 29% of men's in the World Bank region covering the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan and 43% in South Asia, compared with 87% in sub-Saharan Africa and 84% in North America.
Source: International Labour Organization, 2026Care keeps women out of work most in some regions: 63% of women outside the labour force in Northern Africa and 59% in the Arab States give care responsibilities as the reason, compared with 11% in Eastern Europe.
Source: International Labour Organization, 2024In 68 of 78 countries with data, fewer than half of women in agricultural households own or have secure rights to farmland, and in 23 countries men's share is at least twice women's.
Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2026In low-income economies, only 1% of the childcare support mechanisms measured by the World Bank are in place, and fewer than half of all 190 economies offer financial or tax support for childcare to families.
Source: World Bank, 2026Each country is shaded by its latest available value, so you can see where the gap is widest. Hover or tap a country, search for one, or open the full table.
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Shown as 100 minus the ratio of women's to men's labour force participation rate (ages 15+), so 40 means women's rate is 40% lower than men's; values below 0 mean women's rate is higher. Modelled ILO estimates, latest year per country (2025 for nearly all, 2021 to 2023 for a few). A small gap does not mean equal opportunity: in many low-income countries most women work out of necessity in informal or unpaid family work.
Source: ILO modelled estimates, via World Bank Open Data. Latest year available per country; years differ.
Values load from World Bank Open Data. Simplified Natural Earth borders; they imply no position on disputed territories.
Instead of one “percent solved” score, DO GOOD rates three separate dimensions. A problem can have mature solutions that still reach too few people. These ratings are an editorial reading of the sources on this page, not a measured index.
Has the situation improved in the real world?
ModerateLaws and leadership have improved: 68 economies enacted 113 reforms for women's economic opportunity in two years. But women's labour force participation, as modelled by the ILO, is lower than in 1990, and laws are on average only half enforced.
How mature and validated are the available solutions?
ModerateThe main policy tools, such as non-discrimination and equal pay laws, childcare support, parental leave and equal property rights, are well known and widely written into law. Less is known about how to make them work in practice: the World Bank finds that even laws already in place are enforced only about halfway.
How widely are effective solutions actually used?
LowEconomies have fewer than half of the policies and services needed to enforce women's economic rights, and only 4% of women live in economies with nearly full legal equality. In low-income economies just 1% of childcare support mechanisms are in place.
Legal data are systematic across 190 economies, but enforcement scores rest on expert perceptions, labour force figures are modelled for many countries, and time-use surveys on unpaid care are infrequent. The World Economic Forum's wage equality measure is based on perceptions.
Legal reforms continue and the World Economic Forum's economic gap score rose from 55% in 2006 to 61.1% in 2026 in a constant set of 97 economies. At the pace since 2006 the economic gap would take 129 years to close, and the ILO's estimates show women's labour force participation barely changing in recent years.
Women's economic inclusion means that women can work, earn, own property, run a business and save on the same terms as men. Measured this way, no country has reached equality. The World Bank's 2026 assessment of 190 economies found that the average economy scores 67 out of 100 on the laws themselves, 53 on how well those laws are enforced and only 47 on the policies and services needed to make them work, such as childcare. Nearly half of the 131 countries in the UN's legal review still bar women from some jobs that men may do. In the labour market, the ILO's modelled estimates put the global labour force participation rate in 2025 at 48.9% for women and 73.1% for men, and women's rate is lower today than in 1990. Women held 30.5% of managerial positions in 2025, and the World Economic Forum estimates that women's earned income is only about 55% of men's.
A large part of the gap comes from unpaid work at home. Women spend on average two and a half times as many hours as men on unpaid care and domestic work, and more than four times as many in Northern Africa and Western Asia. In 2023, 708 million women were outside the labour force because of care responsibilities, compared with 40 million men. The gaps are widest in the region covering the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan and in South Asia, where women's labour force participation is less than a third and just over two-fifths of men's respectively. When women are shut out of paid work, credit and land, they have less income and security of their own, and economies lose the contribution of a large share of their working-age population.
There is no single measure. SDG 5 tracks it through several targets, including ending discrimination in law (5.1), recognising unpaid care work (5.4), women in leadership (5.5) and equal rights to economic resources (5.a). Four kinds of measure are used most often:
Legal rights and their enforcement
The World Bank's Women, Business and the Law index scores 190 economies on laws in 10 areas that affect women's work and business, such as pay, parenthood, safety, childcare and entrepreneurship. Since the 2026 edition, with data as of 1 October 2025, it also scores the supporting policies and services and how well laws are enforced in practice, the latter based on legal experts' perceptions.
Labour force participation
The labour force participation rate is the share of people aged 15 and over who are working or looking for work. Global and many national values are modelled estimates by the ILO. A high rate shows that women are economically active but says nothing about the pay or security of their work.
Unpaid care and domestic work
SDG indicator 5.4.1 measures the share of time women and men spend on unpaid care and domestic work, such as cooking, cleaning and caring for children and older people. It comes from time-use surveys, which many countries carry out only rarely.
Economic gender gap indices
The World Economic Forum's Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex combines five indicators, including labour force participation, estimated earned income, the share of managers and a measure of perceived wage equality for similar work, into a score where 100% means parity. It covered 145 economies in 2026.
What works
Changing laws that bar women from certain jobs, restrict their rights in marriage or deny them equal treatment opens paid work and business to them. Between 2023 and 2025, 68 economies enacted 113 reforms; Egypt raised its legal equality score by nearly 10 points, and Madagascar and Somalia lifted bans on women working in construction, manufacturing and agriculture.
Limits
A law on paper is not the same as a right in practice. On average, the laws that exist are enforced only about halfway, and even full enforcement of current laws would give women barely two-thirds of men's legal rights.
What works
Care responsibilities are the most common reason women give for staying outside the labour force. Public or subsidised childcare and financial or tax support for families can shift part of this load from households, especially from mothers.
Limits
Fewer than half of the 190 economies assessed offer financial or tax support for childcare, and in low-income economies only 1% of the childcare support mechanisms measured are in place. Building quality care services requires sustained public funding.
What works
Paid leave protects women's jobs and income around childbirth, and leave for fathers can help share care more evenly. Egypt extended paid maternity leave from 90 to 120 days and introduced paid paternity leave, and seven countries expanded paternity leave in the past two years.
Limits
Paternity leave is often very short: Egypt's new paternity leave is one day. Long leave for mothers alone can reinforce the expectation that women carry most of the care, and leave only helps those with formal jobs that grant it.
What works
Laws that give women equal inheritance rights, require spousal consent for land sales and register land jointly give women assets they can farm, sell or use as security. Land is a key resource for women in agricultural households.
Limits
Two-thirds of the nearly 100 countries reporting lack comprehensive secure land tenure frameworks for women, more than 40% do not guarantee spousal consent or equal inheritance rights, and fewer than 30% require joint land registration.
What works
Laws that ban both direct and indirect discrimination at work and require equal pay give women a legal basis to challenge unfair treatment in hiring, promotion and pay.
Limits
Only 44% of 131 countries prohibit both direct and indirect discrimination. A ban on discrimination only helps when women can use it, and the laws that exist are often weakly enforced.
Promising, but not proven at scale. The stage shows how far each approach has come; it is not a recommendation.
Since its 2026 edition, the World Bank's Women, Business and the Law report scores not only laws but also the policies that support them and how well they are enforced, across 190 economies. The scores show large gaps between laws and practice: 67 for laws, 53 for enforcement and 47 for supporting frameworks. Whether governments will use these scores to target reforms is not yet clear.
In June 2024 the International Labour Conference adopted a resolution on decent work and the care economy, which stresses adequate investment in care policies. How to finance care services at scale in low-income countries, where most work is informal, remains unresolved.
Paid paternity leave aims to share caregiving between parents from the start. Seven countries expanded paternity leave in the past two years, but the leave is often very short, and its effect on women's paid work in low- and middle-income countries is not well established.
Registering land in the names of both spouses can give married women secure rights to household land. Fewer than 30% of the countries reporting to the UN require joint registration or women's equal participation in land governance.
Implementation gap
On average, laws supporting women's economic participation are enforced only halfway, and safety laws fail to be enforced 80% of the time. Rights that exist on paper therefore often do not reach women in practice.
Implementation gap
Fewer than half of 190 economies offer financial or tax support for childcare, and in low-income economies only 1% of measured childcare support mechanisms exist. Without them, care at home keeps hundreds of millions of women out of paid work.
Implementation gap
Nearly half of 131 countries still prohibit women from doing some of the same jobs as men, and only 44% ban both direct and indirect discrimination.
Implementation gap
Women can start a business on the same legal terms as men in nearly all economies, but only about half of economies promote equal access to credit, which limits women's ability to grow a business.
Coordination gap
Only 26% of 121 countries and areas have comprehensive systems to track how public money is allocated to gender equality, so ministries of finance, labour and social affairs rarely see whether their spending reaches women.
Knowledge gap
Time-use surveys, the only source on unpaid care work, are carried out rarely in many countries, and enforcement scores depend on the judgement of surveyed experts. Labour force figures for many countries are modelled rather than measured each year.
Unresolved questions, not vetted breakthroughs. Answering any of them would change what is possible.
Why has the global labour force participation rate of women stayed below 1990 levels despite rising education and many legal reforms, and how much is due to care duties, social norms, the kinds of jobs available or measurement?
Which forms of childcare and eldercare, such as community-based, employer-provided or publicly funded services, are affordable at scale where most work is informal, and what effect do they have on women's paid work?
Why are some laws on women's economic rights enforced while others are not, and which institutions, such as labour inspection, courts, legal aid or complaint mechanisms, close the gap between law and practice most effectively?
Do short or long periods of paid leave for fathers lead to a lasting change in how unpaid care is shared at home, and does this affect mothers' employment and earnings outside high-income countries?
Look at how cooking, cleaning and caring for children or relatives are divided in your own household, and take on a fair share of the routine tasks, not only occasional ones.
Ask your employer whether it reviews pay for gender gaps, offers parental leave to fathers as well as mothers, and supports childcare or flexible hours, and use those options yourself where they exist.
Consider giving to organisations that provide legal aid to women on work, land or inheritance, or that support women's cooperatives and businesses, and that report openly on their results.
Tell your elected representatives that you support public investment in childcare and eldercare and the enforcement of equal pay and non-discrimination laws.
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World Bank (press release, 24 February 2026), published 2026
Launch of the 11th edition of Women, Business and the Law (190 economies, 10 topics, data as of 1 October 2025; enforcement scored from legal experts' perceptions): scores of 67 for laws, 53 for enforcement and 47 for supporting frameworks; 4% of women in economies with nearly full legal equality; 113 reforms in 68 economies; findings on childcare, safety, credit and paternity leave.
International Labour Organization (ILOSTAT), via World Bank Open Data, published 2026
Modelled annual estimates of labour force participation for women and men aged 15 and over, world, regions and countries, 1990 to 2025 (indicators SL.TLF.CACT.FE.ZS, SL.TLF.CACT.MA.ZS and SL.TLF.CACT.FM.ZS, updated 2026).
International Labour Organization (ILO) (news release, 29 October 2024), published 2024
Summary of the ILO statistical brief on the impact of care responsibilities on women's labour force participation: 708 million women and 40 million men outside the labour force because of care in 2023, with regional breakdowns.
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, published 2026
Latest UN progress assessment for Goal 5: women's share of managerial positions (30.5% in 2025), legal frameworks in 131 countries, 99 legal reforms 2019 to 2025, and women's land ownership and tenure rights.
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, published 2025
Global and regional comparison of time spent by women and men on unpaid care and domestic work (SDG 5.4.1), managerial positions to 2023 and gender-responsive budgeting systems.
World Economic Forum, published 2026
20th edition, 145 economies: Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex at 61.7% parity, estimated earned income parity of 54.9%, and 129 years to close the economic gap at the current pace (constant sample of 97 economies).