Member Article

Employment law specialist and Karanović & Nikolić's Senior Associate, Jelena Danilović, has contributed to the newest edition of Women, Business and the Law 2016 – Getting Equal, issued by the World Bank Group.

This report is the fourth in a biennial series of reports that provide objective measures of legal and regulatory barriers to women's entrepreneurship and employment. The newest edition includes 173 economies and analyses women's possibilities and rights in different sections, including: accessing institutions, using property, going to court, providing incentives to work, building credit, getting a job and protecting women from violence, etc.

It is needless to stress the persisting relevance of this issue since – despite legal gender parity improving around the world – major differences are still very much evident. Perhaps more than anywhere else, these differences can be noticed in laws and regulations that continue to prevent women from improving the well-being of themselves and their families by working or running a business. Here are some of the selected highlights from the report:

• 155 of the 173 economies covered have at least one law impeding women's economic opportunities.
• The total number of legal gender differences across 173 economies is 943.
• 46 of the economies covered have no laws specifically protecting women from domestic violence.
• In 18 economies, husbands can legally prevent their wives from working.
• Over the past two years, 65 economies carried out 94 reforms increasing women's economic opportunities.

TheWomen, Business and the Lawproject worked with contributors in each of the economies covered to determine the sources of gender differentiation in the law. The methodology of the report was designed to present an easily replicable way to benchmark the legal and regulatory environment for women as entrepreneurs and employees, and Karanović & Nikolić was quick to join in on the cause through providing a contribution for the Montenegrin market by analysing the country's laws and local practice in the said areas.