Standfirst: Women sustain economies through paid employment, entrepreneurship and unpaid care, yet legal barriers, unequal responsibilities and limited access to finance continue to restrict their economic power—and the world’s growth.

An economy cannot afford to leave talent on the sidelines

Economic growth is often measured through familiar indicators: employment, productivity, investment, exports and gross domestic product. But behind these figures lies a less visible question: who has the opportunity to participate in creating that wealth?

Across the world, women are working in hospitals, schools, farms, factories, technology companies, financial institutions and small businesses. They are also performing the unpaid work that allows households and labour markets to function. Yet participation does not automatically mean equality. A woman may be economically active while earning less, holding less secure employment, carrying most household responsibilities or lacking control over the income she generates.

This is why women’s economic inclusion is not simply a social-policy concern. It is a question of how efficiently societies use their human resources.

The World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law 2026 offers a revealing measure of the problem. Its assessment of 190 economies finds that women globally possess about two-thirds of the legal rights enjoyed by men in areas affecting economic opportunity. More strikingly, the average score falls from 67 out of 100 for the adequacy of legal frameworks to 53 for enforcement, while the systems needed to make those rights effective score only 47. The figures show that passing a law and making that law meaningful are two different achievements.

The gap is not merely a matter of fairness. When capable people cannot enter markets, obtain finance, build businesses or remain in employment, economies lose potential workers, consumers, entrepreneurs and taxpayers.

The unpaid economy beneath the paid one

One of the most persistent barriers to women’s economic participation is also one of the least adequately valued: unpaid care.

Cooking, cleaning, raising children, caring for older relatives and supporting family members with disabilities are essential activities. Without them, the formal economy would struggle to operate. Yet this work is frequently treated as a private responsibility rather than as part of the infrastructure that sustains economic life.

The International Labour Organization estimated that 708 million women worldwide were outside the labour force in 2023 because of unpaid care responsibilities, compared with 40 million men. The estimate draws on data from 125 countries. Among women aged 25 to 54, care responsibilities were cited by approximately two-thirds of those outside the workforce for this........

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