1. Legal Reform and Women’s Empowerment in the Public and Private Spheres
Women in Science, Medicine, Engineering, and Beyond
Friday, October 6, 2017

2. Preliminary Notes on Law and Women’s Empowerment
MEO-CCP BSJDK
Preliminary Notes on Law and Women’s Empowerment
Law is a starting point and baseline
Rule of law: governs and protects
Implementation and enforcement
Impartial and independent judicial institutions to arbitrate and enforce
Law alone do not drive change: need a holistic framework

3. What does the baseline look like today globally?
MEO-CCP BSJDK
What does the baseline look like today globally?
According to the World Bank’s Women, Business, and Law database:
Out of 173 countries, 155 maintain at least one legal gender difference
The majority of these countries are in MENA (18), Sub-Saharan Africa (8), East and South Asia (4)
In 100 countries, women face gender-based job restrictions
Lower legal equality is correlated to lower female education levels and job participation

4. Gender-based restrictions across countries (OECD Social Institutions and Gender Index 2014)

5. Figures show a correlation between legal restrictions and female education and workforce participation
Source: World Bank’s Women, Business, and Law Report

6. Scope of gender-related disparities in national legal frameworks
Access to public institutions
Property rights: legal right to own, control, inherit
Employment restrictions: on types of jobs, shifts
Incentives to earn wages: disparity in tax credits
Access to finance
Access to courts: testimony, small claims
Protection from violence
Seven indicators of legal differences identified by the World Bank

7. At the same time, we observe that it is important to consider disparities in laws that regulate the private sphere
COMMON EXAMPLES OF INEQUALITY IN FAMILY LAWS
Constitutional issues:
(1) Separate (unequal) laws for different religious groups/sect
(2) shielding family laws from constitutional review
Restrictions on a married woman’s right to pursue an education, a profession, or travel: requiring a husband’s permission
Restrictions on access to identity cards and passports
Laws that condone domestic violence (discipline)

8. The Overall Historic Trends in Gender-Based Legal Restrictions (1960 – 2010) are Positive:
Between 2014 and 2016, 65 countries enacted legal reforms to increase women’s economic and job opportunities

9. CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM TRENDS, ESTABLISHING CONSTITUTIONAL COURTS
Examples of legal reforms globally in past years..
EXAMPLES OF POSITIVE DEVELOPMENTS IN ECONOMIC LEGAL FRAMEWORKS
EXAMPLES OF POSITIVE DEVELOPMENTS IN FAMILY LAWS GLOBALLY
Moroccan Family Law (Mudawana) recognizes equality in marriage and shared decision-making
UAE law recognizes a wife’s right to work (if she had a job at the time of marriage)
Tunisia announced intention to institute equal inheritance rights
Chad raised the maximum amount for the small claims court.
South Africa now mandates equal remuneration for work of equal value.
Uganda introduced national identity cards in The application process is the same for women.
CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM TRENDS, ESTABLISHING CONSTITUTIONAL COURTS

10. It is important to emphasize that a change in the text of the law is only effective in the context of a holistic process of reform to establish and enhance the Rule of Law
Effective institutional, judicial, and legal reform go hand in hand

11. OUR WORK