When policymakers speak of economic infrastructure, they usually mean roads, ports, power and other physical systems supporting production and trade.

Yet one of the most consequential forms of infrastructure is less visible: the legal and institutional frameworks that determine who can work, own assets, access finance, enter productive sectors and advance within them. Countries do not become competitive through physical assets alone; they do so by removing barriers so talent can thrive.

As reflected in the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law 2026 Report, the rules that govern who can sign contracts, inherit property, secure credit, remain in the workforce and build enterprises over time have direct economic consequences.

These are not abstract rights; they are the conditions that enable participation in markets. In that sense, law is not just rights architecture; it is market architecture. Legal systems that restrict women’s economic participation are not simply inequitable; they are economically inefficient.

Economies that underutilise half their talent pool weaken their labour markets, narrow their productive base and reduce long-term competitiveness.

Across many economies, women continue to face structural constraints in formal employment, asset ownership, access to finance and progression into leadership.

These gaps shape not only labour force participation, but also the quality of that participation. The question is not simply whether women are economically active.

The deeper question is whether women can move into higher productivity work and scale; this is where the law becomes vital economic infrastructure.

In many African economies, women remain concentrated in vulnerable segments of the informal economy, while being starkly underrepresented in the high-value technical and productive sectors that underpin structural transformation.

As a result, growth itself becomes narrower and less resilient than it needs to be. Research from the International Centre for Research on Women and the Kenya Association of Manufacturers’ Women in Manufacturing Report (2020) reinforces this point.

The work on women in manufacturing shows that legal guarantees of equality do not automatically translate into inclusion in productive sectors. Women continue to face barriers linked to workplace culture, uneven access to finance, weak professional progression pathways and the unequal burden of care.

The same pattern is visible across other high-value technical and productive sectors spanning engineering, infrastructure and green energy, as well as digital services and specialised consulting. Here, too, the issue is not only entry, but progression.

Women may enter educational and professional pipelines, but too often do not advance into senior technical, managerial and ownership positions.

The World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law 2026 report highlights that fewer than 5 percent of economies have achieved full equality for women, and even where laws exist, implementation gaps continue to limit their real economic impact.

To bridge this gap and ensure gender inclusion is treated as a structural economic requirement, reform must focus on the following strategic pillars.

First, enforcement must move to the centre of the conversation. Legal equality without implementation has a limited economic effect.

Countries need stronger dispute resolution pathways, more effective labour oversight and regulatory institutions capable of translating statutory equality into workplace reality. This requires a shift from viewing gender laws as compliance tools to viewing them as instruments of economic optimisation.

Second, legal reform must be aligned with sector strategy. It is not enough to enact equality provisions in the abstract while leaving women excluded from sectors expected to drive growth.

Governments, regulators and industry bodies should embed inclusion into industrial strategies, supplier development, technical and vocational training and enterprise support.

Third, care infrastructure must be recognised as a productive economic investment. The unequal burden of unpaid care is a quantifiable labour market distortion; according to the KNBS 2025 report, this ‘invisible’ labour in Kenya is valued at Sh2.54 trillion, or 23.1 percent of gross domestic product.

Because women shoulder 80 percent of this burden, it acts as a massive, uncompensated ‘tax’ on their productive potential.

The solution lies in adopting care policy frameworks and shifting to hard labour-market interventions such as state-supported childcare and tax incentives for gender-responsive workplaces, turning care from a private struggle into a strategic economic priority.

Fourth, financial and asset reform must be tackled more structurally. Women’s ability to scale businesses is often constrained by collateral systems, inheritance practices and unequal asset ownership. If women-owned firms are to move beyond survivalist activity into higher-value sectors, financial systems must evolve.

Finally, inclusion must move from the periphery of our business ecosystems to their very core.

This requires a transition toward strategic mentorship and leadership pathways that do more than offer advice; they must actively bridge the gap to market access and capital. This ‘soft infrastructure’ is what converts professional talent into realised economic power, positioning women to lead, own and scale the firms that will define our industrial future.

Nations become competitive when laws, institutions and sector policies converge to move talent into productive work. As we look toward an integrated and industrialising Africa, we must recognise that fixing this “invisible” infrastructure to convert professional talent into realised economic power is one of the most cost-effective stimulus packages available to the continent today.

The writer is an Eisenhower Fellow and the Managing Partner, Wakiaga & Co Advocates. She has expertise in industrial policy, governance and private sector development.