The COVID-19 pandemic is creating new challenges to women’s economic security, health, and safety as around the world women continue to face laws and relations that restrict their economic opportunity, a new World Bank report has revealed.
The report from the “Women, Business and the Law 2021” made available to the Ghana News Agency at Tema said the economic and social impact of the pandemic had reinforced gender inequalities as laws still restricted women’s economic opportunities despite progress.
The Women, Business, and the Law 2021 measures the laws and regulations across eight areas that affected women’s economic opportunities in 190 countries, from September 2019 to October 2020.
The data, offered objective and measurable benchmarks for global progress toward gender equality, adding that following the outbreak of the pandemic, the report also looked at government responses to the COVID-19 crisis and how the pandemic had impacted women at work and at home, focusing on childcare, access to justice, health and safety.
The pandemic, the report revealed contributed to a rise in both the severity and frequency of gender-based violence with preliminary research showing that since early 2020, governments introduced about 120 new measures including; hotlines, psychological assistance, and shelters to protect women from violence.
According to the report, some governments also took steps to provide access to justice in several ways, including; declaring family cases urgent during lockdown and allowing remote court proceedings for family matters, noting however that, governments still had room to enact measures and policies aimed at addressing the root causes of this violence.
The report stated that despite the pandemic, 27 economies in all regions and income groups enacted reforms across all areas and increased good practices in legislation in 45 cases during the year covered.