Do progressive laws effectively improve gender equality?
Can repealing discriminatory laws and enacting progressive ones make a real difference in advancing gender equality?
Making national laws gender-equal can have ripple effects if local norms are already shifting, yet laws alone cannot dramatically alter culturally-embedded behaviour, according to The Center for Global Development (CGD).
The World Bank’s Tazeen Hassan cites the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) as one of the international conventions that can serve as useful tools for grassroots activists.
CGD and members from the World Bank’s ‘Women, Business, and the Law’ report met last month to generate ideas for future research on this issue. This includes the interaction between law and social norms, ways to enforce laws effectively, and the role of outsiders.