Expected lifetime earnings gap between men, women exceeds $1.7 trillion

(ECNS) -- While progress has been made, the gap between men and women’s expected lifetime earnings globally is $172 trillion -- nearly twice the world’s annual GDP, said Mari Pangestu, World Bank managing director of Development Policy and Partnerships.

The latest report released by the World Bank, Women, Business and the Law 2022, measured laws and regulations across 190 countries in eight areas impacting women’s economic participation – mobility, workplace, pay, marriage, parenthood, entrepreneurship, assets, and pensions, helping to measure global progress in promoting gender equality with objective and measurable benchmarks.

Data shows that only 12 countries, all from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), have legal gender parity.

"As we move forward to achieve green, resilient and inclusive development, governments need to accelerate the pace of legal reforms so that women could realize their full potential and benefit fully and equally," said Pangestu.

Most reforms focus on parenthood, pay and workplace indicators globally. Many reforms pay attention to protect women against sexual harassment in employment, prohibiting gender discrimination, increasing paid leave for new parents, and removing job restrictions for women.

Currently, more countries are investing in childcare. Across the world, 118 economies guarantee 14 weeks of paid leave for mothers. Armenia, Switzerland, and Ukraine introduced paid paternity leave. Colombia, Georgia, Greece, and Spain introduced paid parental leave, which offer both parents some form of paid leave to care for a child following birth, according to the World Bank Group.

The World Bank Group believes laws promoting paid leave for fathers can reduce discrimination in the workplace and improve work-life balance.

"Women cannot achieve equality in the workplace if they are on an unequal footing at home,” said Carmen Reinhart, senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank Group.

“That means leveling the playing field and ensuring that having children doesn’t mean women are excluded from full participation in the economy and realizing their hopes and ambitions,” she added.