Workforce participation

Under the Constitution and the law, Egyptian women are entitled to full equality in the field of work. However, in reality, women’s participation in economic activities differs drastically from the texts of the Constitution, the law and inter­national treaties, and both rural and urban women fare badly in the labour market.

was based on the 1995 Human Development Report, which introduced a gender- related guide to human development, and which classified Egypt among states with a low rate of human development due to the increasing male—female in­equality in the distribution of human capacities (Abdul Rahman 1999: 14).

Under the impact of the side effects of economic reform and privatization policies, women have suffered more than men from increased unemployment rates, with female unemployment rates starting to increase in the mid-ιg8os and overtaking those of men. At the same time, the number of women living below the poverty level has increased, which in turn has led to an increasing number of females dropping out of school, leading to enhanced rates of female illiteracy as against those of males, in addition to their early entry into the labour market and deprivation of education and training, constraining their competitive capabilities in the labour market. The past few years have also witnessed a retreat from the principle of women’s equality in work, as shown by certain practices in violation of the law and the Constitution such as notices in the daily newspapers advertising vacant posts for male applicants. There have been calls for women to stop going out to work. The numbers of women working for a cash wage increased relatively from 58 per cent in 1976 to 76 per cent in 1986; but the same period (1976—86) also witnessed a relative increase in the number of unemployed women, especially with a new wave of unemployed females, with an unemployment rate of 23.8 per cent out of the total number of women in the workforce being reached (CBNSS, Census 1976 1986∖