Nigeria, Feb. 26 -- Women across the world enjoy barely two-thirds of the legal rights available to men, and laws designed to guarantee equal economic opportunities are enforced only half the time.

These findings are contained in a new report by the World Bank Group titled "Women, Business and the Law", released on Tuesday.

The report assesses not only the quality of the laws on the books but also their enforcement. It warns that the barriers preventing women from fully contributing to economic growth and prosperity are far steeper than previously thought, even in countries that have enacted equal-opportunity legislation.

According to the report, the average country scores 67 out of 100 on the adequacy of laws designed to enable econom...