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

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.