Legal gaps limit economic role for Cambodian women, WB says

Legal gaps limit economic role for Cambodian women, WB says

By strengthening legal enforcement and updates, the Kingdom can match regional peers and transform existing laws into real-world economic, business, and career opportunities for women.

Cambodia scores 62.73 out of 100 on women’s legal rights, with its enforcement score dropping even lower to 41.17, according to a World Bank (WB) report. Both figures fall below global averages, and the assessment highlights that the country enacted no reforms to improve women’s economic opportunities over the two-year study period.

The findings were published in the ‘Women, Business and the Law 2026’ report, released on Friday, assessing the legal and institutional environment for women’s economic participation across 190 countries under three pillars: legal frameworks, supportive frameworks and enforcement perceptions.

The report measured 10 areas affecting women throughout their working lives, including safety, mobility, work, pay, marriage, parenthood, childcare, entrepreneurship, assets and pensions, reflecting laws and policies in force as of October 1, 2025.

The Kingdom’s legal frameworks score of 62.73 represented the share of legal rights afforded to women compared with men, indicating that they have fewer protections and remain below the global standard.

The enforcement perceptions score was significantly lower at 41.17, compared with a global average of 53. The indicator reflected experts’ assessment of how effectively public authorities enforce laws and uphold the rights measured by the legal frameworks pillar.

Meanwhile, Cambodia scored 55.75 on supportive frameworks, which measures the policies, institutions and mechanisms needed to support implementation of equal-opportunity laws.

Unlike its legal frameworks and enforcement scores, Cambodia’s supportive frameworks score was above the global average of 47, suggesting that while gaps remain in the legal framework and enforcement, the country has comparatively stronger institutional mechanisms supporting implementation.

However, the regional comparison showed that the Kingdom continues to lag several neighbouring economies on key indicators. Vietnam recorded the highest scores among Cambodia, Laoand Thailand, with 86.73 for legal frameworks, 56.83 for supportive frameworks and 66.61 for enforcement perceptions.

Laos scored 73.03 on legal frameworks and 47.87 on enforcement, both higher than Cambodia, although its supportive frameworks score of 47.33 was below the Kingdom’s 55.75.

Thailand also performed better than Cambodia on legal frameworks and enforcement, scoring 69.40 and 53.38 respectively. However, its supportive frameworks score was substantially lower at 32.92.

The comparison left Cambodia with the lowest score among the four economies on both legal frameworks and enforcement, although it ranked second on supportive frameworks, narrowly behind Vietnam.

WB noted that the broader global picture shows that laws alone are insufficient to ensure equal economic opportunities for women. Globally, women have about two-thirds of the legal rights available to men, while policies and institutions needed to make those rights effective remain significantly less developed.

The report identified safety, entrepreneurship and childcare as areas with some of the weakest global performance, stressing that women continue to face barriers related to protection from violence, access to finance and opportunities to establish and grow businesses. In contrast, childcare systems remained inadequate in many economies.

These gaps have direct economic implications. The report noted that removing barriers to women’s participation can support job creation, productivity and inclusive growth, with estimates suggesting that closing gender gaps in employment and entrepreneurship could raise global gross domestic product by 15 to 20 percent.

For Cambodia, the report found no legal reforms affecting the measured areas of women’s economic rights between October 2023 and October 2025, reflecting the need to address legal and institutional gaps.

During the same period, 68 countries introduced 113 reforms to strengthen women’s economic opportunities. WB report noted that governments need to address both legal barriers and the systems required to make laws effective.

The measures included strengthening institutions, improving access to services such as childcare and finance, and ensuring that existing legal protections are properly enforced.

The report noted that even where equal rights exist in law, weak systems and limited enforcement can create a persistent gap between legal rights and their practical application.

For Cambodia, the findings suggested that strengthening enforcement and continuing legal reforms could help narrow the gap with regional peers and translate existing legal protections into greater opportunities for women to participate in the labour market, entrepreneurship and broader economic activity.

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