Taiwan is Asia’s top nation for providing women and men equal rights under the law, a women’s empowerment study released by the World Bank showed.
Women, Business and the Law 2019: A Decade of Reform examined a decade of laws and regulations affecting women’s prospects as entrepreneurs and employees across 187 economies worldwide.
The study used eight indicators — going places, starting a job, getting paid, getting married, having children, running a business, managing assets and receiving a pension — to underscore women’s interactions with the law as they begin, develop and finish their careers.
Taiwan scored full marks on all the indices except for having children (80), running a business (75) and receiving a pension (75).
Taiwan, Albania and New Zealand each had an average total score of 91.25.
The overall score was calculated based on an average of all eight indicators on a scale of zero to 100, with 100 representing the best overall score.
Along with 22 other economies, Taiwan performed well over the past 10 years by removing all job restrictions on women in all sectors of the economy, the study found.
With an overall score of 86.25, Hong Kong was the next best performer in Asia, followed by South Korea (85) and Singapore (82.50).
Belgium, Denmark, France, Latvia, Luxembourg and Sweden were the only countries with average total scores of 100, meaning that they give women and men equal legal rights in all categories.
“Ultimately, the data shows us that laws can be tools that empower women rather than that hold us back from achieving our potential,” World Bank Group interim president Kristalina Georgieva was quoted as saying in the study.
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