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head of the household, or choose where to live.8 According to Women, Business, and the Law, of the 53 countries studied that formally recognize customary or religious law as valid sources of law under the constitution, more than half exempt such laws from constitutional provisions on nondiscrimination or equality.9 This discrepancy reveals a disconnect between constitutionally protected rights and statutory and customary law, which affects what plays out in practice. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, the constitution expressly prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender and provides for equality before the law; yet married women cannot get a job, sign a contract, register a business, or be the head of a household in the same way as men. The constitution does not invalidate customary law that is discriminatory or in conflict with constitutional provisions of equality. Family laws, laws related to gender-based violence, and laws related to economic opportunities are among the domains of law most likely to limit women’s empowerment; these are discussed briefly below. In some countries, women’s citizenship rights are limited—a woman cannot confer citizenship on a foreign spouse in the same way as a man in 35 countries, and in 20 of those, women cannot confer citizenship on their children.10 Restrictions can limit women’s mobility and access to work. Countries such as the Islamic Republic of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and the Republic of Yemen, where married women are required to have male permission to travel or to work outside the home, show how the law itself can restrict women’s agency. One result of this restriction is very low rates of female labor force participation—ranging from as low as 20 percent (Yemen) to 32 percent (Iran)—compared with male labor force participation of 73 percent (Iran) to 80 percent (Saudi Arabia). Legal disparities can reduce women’s ability to participate on an equal footing with men in the economy. Women, Business, and the Law finds that greater lack of legal gender parity in business and institutional laws is associated with lower labor force participation by women (both in absolute terms and relative to men) and lower levels of women’s entrepreneurship. This is supported by a study in Africa that found that gender gaps in legal capacity and property rights limited women’s roles as entrepreneurs. The gap between the share of women and men who are employers is 30 percent higher in countries where there are larger gender disparities in economic rights.11
8 World Bank, Women, Business, and the Law 2012: Removing Barriers to Economic Inclusion (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank 2012) (hereinafter, WBL). 9 Twenty-seven countries do not consider customary or personal law as invalid if the law violates constitutional provisions on nondiscrimination or equality; id. 10 WBL, supra note 8.
11 M. Hallward-Driemeier & T. Hasan, Empowering Women: Legal Rights and Opportunities in Africa, World Bank Africa Development Forum Series (2012).