Gendered laws and Women’s financial inclusion

• This paper examines the correlation between legal gender equality and women’s access to financial products. • The results show that equality in the law between men and women reduces women’s involuntary financial inclusion. • However, social norms that discriminate against women can cancel out the positive effects of legal equality. • Effective implementation of the law can strengthen the positive relationship between legal equality and women’s financial inclusion. This paper documents the relationship between legal gender equality and the use of financial services, using individual-level data from 148 developed and developing economies. The analysis, which combines data from the Global Findex and Women, Business and the Law databases, highlights the existence of a significant and positive correlation between gender equality in the law and women’s access to financial products. The results show that greater legal equality alleviates women’s involuntary financial exclusion. The findings also suggest that prevailing adverse social norms can nullify the beneficial effects of legal equality, and that better implementation of the law can facilitate a stronger relationship between legal frameworks and women’s financial inclusion.