“I Want to Break Free”: How Laws and Social Norms Open Doors for Women

Alev Gurbuz Cuneo, Ana Maria Tribin Uribe, Tea Trumbic and Caroline Perrin

No 11288, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: This paper develops a conceptual framework to analyze how gendered social norms mediate the effects of legal frameworks on women’s economic empowerment. Using the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law domains, Safety, Mobility, Work, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Childcare, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension, as an organizing structure, the study conducts a targeted, systematic review of 130 studies focused on nearly 30 single-country cases and diverse regional or multi-country contexts. Each study is coded by domain, research method, and type of norm-law interaction, enabling the identification of patterns of evidence and gaps. Only 56 percent of the reviewed studies establish causal relationships, with most relying on cross-sectional data and concentrated on high-income countries. Qualitative research provides rich contextual insights but remains fragmented. The review highlights a scarcity of longitudinal data, as existing sources differ in the types of information they provide, vary in country coverage, and are often discontinuous over time, resulting in limited evidence on the links or causal relationships between legal reforms and gendered social norms. Although not exhaustive, the paper offers both a conceptual and data-based map of the literature.

Date: 2026-01-09
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/0994461 ... 08a-e79b3ddb8dc6.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11288

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20433. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Roula I. Yazigi ().