Women continue to make up integral part of Azerbaijan's workforce

As part of a long-standing tradition, Azerbaijan is honouring the female half of its population on March 8 for International Women’s Day.

This year, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population has highlighted progress in women’s employment and professional development over 2025, reflecting positive outcomes from recent labour reforms.

Azerbaijan has significantly improved its standing in the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law report for 2025, according to the ministry’s data. Reforms in labour legislation helped raise the country’s index score to 85, placing it 69th among 190 countries—a notable rise from its previous position of 104th.

The State Employment Agency has played a key role in these improvements, providing 69,500 women with job opportunities in 2025 alone. In addition, more than 6,500 women were given assets and resources through the self-employment program to establish small family businesses.

Professional training initiatives also expanded last year, with 18,400 people participating in courses organized by the agency, of whom 11,800 were women.

The ministry noted that the reforms were recognized at the spring 2025 meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, where Azerbaijan’s efforts to enhance labour opportunities for women were highly praised.

“Changes in our labour legislation in recent years have significantly expanded employment opportunities for women,” the ministry said in a statement marking International Women’s Day.

Azerbaijan enjoys a high participation of its female population in the labour market, boasting not only the highest outcomes for the South Caucasus region but the highest among all post-Soviet states, with women making up  49.9% of the workforce. Fellow countries with a similar economic and historic background following Azerbaijan in this World Bank ranking are Latvia (49.8%) and Estonia (49.7%).

By Nazrin Sadigova