‘Women, work and family’: Educated women's employment decisions and social policies in Egypt

Abstract

Despite increased access to education, women's conspicuous absence from the labour market in Egypt, and the Arab world in general, has been a key issue. Building on the stock of evidence on women's employment, this study provides a qualitative analysis of the torrent of challenges that educated married and unmarried women face as they venture into the labour market in Egypt. Single women highlight constrained opportunities due to job scarcity and compromised job quality. Issues of low pay, long hours, informality and workplace suitability to gender propriety norms come to the fore in the interview data. Among married working women, the conditions of the work domain are compounded by challenges of time deprivation and weak family and social support. The article highlights women's calculated and aptly negotiated decisions to work or opt out of the labour market in the face of such challenges. The analysis takes issue with the culturalist view that reduces women's employment decisions to ideology. It brings to the context of Arab countries three global arguments pertaining to the inseparability of work and family for women; the role of social policies and labour market conditions in defining women's employment decisions; and the potential disconnect between employment and empowerment. By looking at women as jobseekers and workers, the analysis particularly highlights the intersectionality of different forms of inequality in defining employment opportunities.

Public employment in the Middle East and North Africa

“…The public sector also offers favorable working conditions such as relatively short working hours, job security and stability, and social and health benefits, all of which are particularly valued by educated female workers [10]. Although these job characteristics apply to both men and women, within the prevailing culture that gives primacy to women's domestic roles and responsibilities, these public sector traits are even more strongly preferred among women [11]. In fact, data tracking women's employment before and after marriage show RAGUI ASSAAD AND GHADA BARSOUM | Public employment in the Middle East and North Africa that women in private wage employment typically leave such employment after marriage, whereas their public sector employment is hardly affected by marriage [12].…”

“…Unlike men, who must often fall back on low-quality jobs in the informal economy, unemployed young women often exit the workforce altogether rather than take jobs in the informal economy. Informal jobs, such as domestic service or work in small retail establishments, are widely perceived as threatening to women's sexual safety and reputation and incompatible with gender norms that define women's primary role as that of homemaker [11].…”

“…The authors thank anonymous referees and the IZA World of Labor editors for many helpful suggestions on earlier drafts. Previous work of the authors contains a larger number of background references for the material presented here and has been used intensively in all major parts of this article [1], [6], [7], [10], [11], [12].…”

‘Give Me Some Rail’: An Enquiry into Puzzle of Declining Female Labour Force Participation Rate

“…Role of transport is also underscored by the fact that women opt for jobs, which have less travel-to-work features, and consequently limit their employment opportunities (Wheatley, 2013). Increased travel time has been found to contribute to gendering of employment in cases where the job requires long commute time (Barsoum, 2019). Since women are more reliant on public transport than men (Hine, 2016), travel time is bound to affect their participation in labour force.…”

Lifelong Learning and Career Progression of Women in Nigeria

“…Moreover, for women who actually succeeded in advancing to top position their experiences during their daily work lives are affected by several organizational barriers. Barsoum (2019) highlighted that organization policy at times on work responsibilities are not favorable to women in terms of childcare and other family's task.…”