Women can be fired for pregnancy in 40 nations, says World Bank Chief Economist

World Bank Chief Economist Carmen Reinhart on Monday said that there are still almost 40 countries where women can be fired from their jobs simply for getting pregnant.

Reinhart said the economic fallout from covid-19 had been “very regressive,” hitting the most vulnerable hardest, including women and girls.

Covid child brides: 10 million more girls can be pushed into child marriage, warns Unicef report

“We are seeing big setbacks on schooling, girls are taken out that will not return,” said Reinhart, speaking on International Women’s Day.

The pandemic has contributed to an increase in violence against women and is reinforcing gender inequality in many countries, with women on average having roughly three-quarters of the legal rights of men, according to the World Bank.

Meanwhile, According to a new analysis released by Unicef,  the outsized impact Covid-19 has had on women in some countries could result in an additional 10 million child marriages in this decade.

"School closures, economic stress, service disruptions, pregnancy and parental deaths due to the pandemic are putting the most vulnerable girls at increased risk of child marriage," said a study titled "Covid-19: A threat to progress against child marriage."

That trend, if confirmed, would represent a serious retreat from recent years of progress against child marriage.

In the last 10 years, according to the study, the proportion of young women globally who were married as children had declined by 15 per cent, from nearly one in four to one in five.

(With inputs from agencies)