Policies and regulations can either serve as barriers to employment opportunities for women or help to ensure that women are able to access the same employment opportunities as men or mitigate obstacles and imbalances.

This brief specifically examines how laws and regulations limit or enable women to enter, remain, and advance in the formal sector workforce in the APEC region, with an emphasis on access to wage employment and retention. The brief analyzes how employment and pay discrimination, regulatory employment restrictions, occupational standards, and sexual harassment can limit women’s wage employment. It also examines how laws and policies can support working women and working parents to actively thrive and advance in the workplace, and highlights promising approaches and good practices to promote women’s labor force participation from both the public and private sectors.

This report is authored by Nathan and funded by USAID and U.S. Department of State as part of the US Support for Economic Growth in Asia (US-SEGA) project.