What a week — the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics wrapped up in spectacular fashion on February 22nd at the Verona Arena, capping two weeks of breathtaking athleticism and remarkable resilience. Just as the world was still buzzing from the slopes and the ice, the World Bank released its 2026 Women, Business and the Law (WBL) report on February 24th, measuring how laws, policies, and enforcement shape women’s economic opportunities.
What seems like two very different events, share a powerful connection: a country's WBL scores are a surprising predictor of how many women represented a given country at the Winter Olympics 2026. The WBL is built on three pillars: legal frameworks, which measure the degree of equality of rights regarding women’s work and entrepreneurship; supportive frameworks, which examine the policies, institutions, programs, and data systems supporting laws’ implementation; and enforcement perceptions, which assess how effectively public authorities enforce legislation. Each of these pillar scores are positively associated with the number of women athletes at the Winter Olympics 2026, after accounting for countries' level of development (measured by GDP per capita) and population size, both of which naturally influence team size.
Women, Business and the Law evaluates ten topics within each of the three pillars: Safety, Mobility, Work, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Childcare, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension. Of these, Marriage, Parenthood, and Childcare emerge as the most relevant — a sign that the path to Olympic greatness for many women runs through the effective enforcement of laws and policies that govern their family life.
What about winning medals? WBL scores are only associated positively with numbers of women participating in the Olympics, not necessarily with the number of medals actually won by women. But the first rule of winning is showing up. Countries that send more women athletes tend to win more women’s medals, so there is an indirect effect. What’s more: even after accounting for the number of women competing, a country's likelihood of winning at least one women's medal is predicted by its WBL supportive frameworks score. In other words, the broader policy environment that supports women’s participation in the economy, including policies aimed at balancing career and family, appears to shape their athletic performance too, even if the effect is modest.
Gender equality between men and women, it turns out, is not just a moral imperative, or simply smart economics — it also shows up on the literal playing field! These findings reflect associations rather than causal relationships, but the patterns are striking enough to suggest that leveling the playing field, in every sense of the phrase, may matter more than we think.
The message is simple: equality enables women to participate and contribute. When laws guarantee equal rights at home, in marriage, parenting, and access to childcare, they lay the groundwork long before an athlete reaches the starting line. But laws alone are not enough. The policies and systems that support women in balancing work and family shape how far they can go, including on the world’s biggest athletic stage. If we are serious about excellence — in our economies and in our arenas — leveling the legal and institutional playing field is not optional; it is the foundation on which champions are built.
Source — The WB
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