"Latvia gets a perfect score" on legal economic gender equality

Latvia is one of just 14 countries worldwide which ensure equal economic rights before the law for men and women, according to a recent report from the World Bank.

The report, titled 'Women, Business and the Law' (WBL2023) presents an index covering 190 economies and structured around the life cycle of a working woman.

"In total, 35 questions are scored across eight indicators. Overall scores are then calculated by taking the average of each indicator, with 100 representing the highest possible score. Data refer to the laws and regulations that are applicable to the main business city (Riga). Different rules may apply in other jurisdictions so local legislation should be reviewed. Based on this approach, Latvia scores 100 out of 100. The overall score for Latvia is higher than the regional average observed across OECD high-income economies (95.3). Within the OECD high-income region, there are 14 economies that score 100 out of 100," says the report.

Women, business and the law report 2023
Photo: World Bank

"When it comes to constraints on freedom of movement, laws affecting women's decisions to work, laws affecting women's pay, constraints related to marriage, laws affecting women's work after having children, constraints on women starting and running a business, gender differences in property and inheritance, and laws affecting the size of a woman's pension, Latvia gets a perfect score. Latvia attains a perfect score on all of the WBL2023 indicators," says the report.

In the wider world, According to the World Bank: "An economy is stronger when all citizens can contribute equally. By revealing how laws affect women’s economic participation, Women, Business and the Law 2023 presents persuasive evidence that an equal sharing of legal rights and freedoms is also instrumental for better economic performance.

"This year’s study delivers some promising news. Despite multiple overlapping global crises, most regions are advancing toward legal gender equality across all areas measured. To guide in the pursuit of gender equality, Women, Business and the Law 2023 offers some lessons from the past. An impressive analysis of five decades of reforms shows where and how countries have adopted more than 2,000 laws to enhance legal gender parity. However, at this pace, it will take another 50 years to close the legal gender gap."

The full report is available to read here: https://wbl.worldbank.org/en/wbl and the presentation of the data can be viewed below.

Source: Eng.LSM.lv (Latvian Public Broadcasting). Photo: Shutterstock.