Economics & Development

This brief explores the role of women entrepreneurs in job creation, focusing on how women‑owned firms contribute to women’s employment. Using data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys (WBES) covering formally registered firms across 168 economies over 19 years, the analysis shows that women remain systematically underrepresented as entrepreneurs, top managers, and workers in formal firms with five or more workers. Women‑owned firms play a critical role in expanding women’s formal employment, hiring about 20 percentage points more women in permanent full‑time positions than men‑owned firms across income groups, firm sizes, sectors, and regions. In low‑income economies, this gap is even more pronounced, with women‑owned firms hiring about twice the share of women compared to men‑owned firms. This pattern may partly reflect women’s concentration in sectors that employ more women, but it persists across all sectors. However, structural barriers such as limited access to finance, training, and markets often constrain women’s business performance and job growth, resulting in fewer net jobs per firm compared to men‑owned firms. These findings suggest that gender gaps in job creation reflect structural features of labor markets, and that removing barriers to women’s entrepreneurship could unlock additional job growth while expanding women’s access to full‑time employment.

The Inspection Panel (the Panel) received a Request for Inspection (the Request) dated February 5, 2025, related to the Bank-funded India: Green National Highway Corridor Project (P167350), which the Panel registered on March 14, 2025. On May 5, 2025, Bank Management provided a written response to the Panel. On June 4, 2025, the Panel recommended an investigation into the allegations made in the Request in its Report and Recommendation to the Board. After the Panel submitted its Report and Recommendation, and before the Board approval, Management provided an Addendum to its initial Management Response on June 11, 2025. Management’s Addendum included six actions by the Project and the contractor to address issues as identified in the Panel’s Report and Recommendation dated June 4, 2025. The six actions to be taken by the Borrower and Management are to address the residual harm the Panel’s Report identified. On June 18, 2025, while noting that the actions proposed by Management will require time to be completed, the Panel revised its investigation recommendation and, deferred its decision for six months. This was to allow sufficient time for the actions highlighted in the Addendum to the Management Response to address the residual impacts identified in the Panel’s Report and Recommendation. On July 3, 2025, the Board approved the Panel’s deferral decision. The Panel is required to make a final recommendation taking into consideration the implementation of the six proposed actions.