The economic gender gap in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region remains one of the largest in the world. Female labor force participation in MENA is the lowest globally, estimated at 20 percent (2019). The article presents arguments related to women’s participation in the job market, including men’s perceptions, along with practical realities of child care, commuting, low salaries, and lack of access to information. Emerging evidence from randomized evaluations in Egypt suggests that a range of programs to support women finding and getting to the work site, and interventions to update men’s perceptions, can increase women’s labor force participation

ElAshmawy, Nadeen

Muhab, Norhan

Osman, Adam

International Development Research Centre: IDRC Digital Library

   POLICY BRIEF 2 ;  ;    © 2021, AUC   This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction, provided the original work is properly credited.  Cette œuvre est mise à disposition selon les termes de la licence Creative Commons Attribution (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode), qui permet l’utilisation, la distribution et la reproduction sans restriction, pourvu que le mérite de la création originale soit adéquatement reconnu.      IDRC Grant/ Subvention du CRDI:  108439-001-Improving the effectiveness of job fairs for young job-seekers in Egypt  brought to you by COREView metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.ukprovided by International Development Research Centre: IDRC Digital Library08/02/2021 Improving female labor force participation in MENA | The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Labhttps://www.povertyactionlab.org/blog/11-2-20/improving-female-labor-force-participation-mena 1/6Improving female labor force participation inMENAMIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA  LABOR MARKETS GENDERPosted on: 2 November 2020Authors: Nadeen ElAshmawy ,  Norhan Muhab ,  Adam OsmanPhoto: Shutterstock.comClick here for information on J-PAL's response to Covid-19Home  About Us  BlogEnglish08/02/2021 Improving female labor force participation in MENA | The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Labhttps://www.povertyactionlab.org/blog/11-2-20/improving-female-labor-force-participation-mena 2/6Despite substantial progress in the last few years, the economic gender gap in the MiddleEast and North Africa (MENA) region remains one of the largest in the world. Female laborforce participation in MENA is the lowest globally, estimated at 20 percent in 2019.Many factors contribute to this low participation rate in the region, including social norms,misinformation, employer discrimination, and poor job conditions. Evidence from recentrandomized evaluations conducted in MENA help shed light on some reasons whyparticipation rates are so low and what types of policies could help increase them. Overall,the evidence suggests that there are untapped opportunities to reduce gender employmentgaps through policies that increase knowledge and improve work conditions and safety.Social norms and misinformationSocial norms may contribute to the challenges women face when seeking equal economicopportunities. In a randomized evaluation conducted in Saudi Arabia to measure the e ectsof perceptions of social norms on female labor force participation, researchers found thatwhile 87 percent of men supported female labor force participation, 72 percentunderestimated other men’s support for women working outside the home. In other words,men misperceived others’ opinions, and this led them to discourage their wives fromseeking work outside the home. When men received accurate information on other men’s opinions, they often changedtheir views on whether their wives should work outside the home, which led to a 36 percentincrease in the proportion of men who signed their wives up for job matching services. Afterthe intervention, wives of men who received this information were also more likely to haveapplied for a job outside their homes and more likely to have had an interview. This  ndingsuggests that updating men with accurate information about others’ perceptions may helpshift social norms and lead to changes in behavior. Misinformation about salaries could also discourage women from trying to  nd a job.Preliminary results of a study on using job fairs to improve job matching in Egypt show that26 percent of women underestimated the wage range o ered at the fair, while only 12percent of men did so. Women were also willing to accept lower wages than men. Givingwomen information about the wages o ered at the job fair increased their attendance andtheir reported reservation wages. These  ndings indicate that misperceptions aboutsalaries may exacerbate the gender wage gap, as some women tend to underestimate theirvalue in the labor market.Employer discriminationAnother factor that may contribute to low female labor force participation is employers’preferences. In a study on Egypt’s labor market, half of employers reported that they prefer08/02/2021 Improving female labor force participation in MENA | The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Labhttps://www.povertyactionlab.org/blog/11-2-20/improving-female-labor-force-participation-mena 3/6to hire men over women, when asked both directly and indirectly. Employers were alsoasked if they place more weight on socioeconomic background than skills when hiring.About a third of employers a rmed the statement when asked directly, whereas more thanhalf of respondents agreed when asked indirectly. These responses indicate that employers discriminate against women and individuals oflower socioeconomic backgrounds, but their gender-based discrimination is explicit whiletheir class-based discrimination tends to be more discreet. This implies that additionalpolicy e orts focused on limiting gender-based discrimination could make a di erence in alarge proportion of the labor market. Poor job conditionsFinally, poor job conditions may also reduce women’s work. Studies suggest that longworking hours, childcare, and issues related to geographic mobility and commuting, oftenact as structural barriers to women’s entrance into the labor market. In a study that attempts to quantify how people value job attributes in Egypt, researchersfound that men and women value certain job features di erently. When considering a jobopportunity, the availability of on-site daycare services,  exible working hours, and noweekend work were valued more by women. Women also valued shorter commute timesand jobs that are closer to home. These results imply that policies that improve jobconditions that are especially valuable for women can have a large impact on women’sparticipation in the labor force. In addition to commute time, an experiment assessing the demand for mobility in Egyptindicates that safety during travel is a primary concern for women. Researchers found thatmany women perceive public transport to be unsafe, and when they were o ered discountson Uber rides, women were more likely to substitute away from using buses, leading to asigni cant increase in their experienced levels of safety as well as increases in their overallmobility. These results suggest that making safe modes of transportation more accessiblefor women may enhance their mobility, limit their commute-related concerns, andeventually improve their labor force participation.Open questions around increasing female labor forparticipation in MENAEmerging  evidence from randomized evaluations in Egypt suggests that a range ofprograms to support women  nding and getting to work, and interventions to update men’sperceptions of women’s work can increase women’s labor force participation. In otherwords, while women continue to work outside the home at some of the lowest rates08/02/2021 Improving female labor force participation in MENA | The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Labhttps://www.povertyactionlab.org/blog/11-2-20/improving-female-labor-force-participation-mena 4/6worldwide, we should not interpret this as the permanent state of the labor market inMENA.  An overarching question that remains is: how can women’s human capital be furtherutilized to contribute to the economic development of countries in MENA? Further researchis needed to understand how to reduce barriers to female labor force participation,including factors that prevent women from seeking work outside the home or cause themto drop out of the labor market. Such factors include inadequate maternity leave andchildcare, gender pay gaps in existing  rms, structural inequalities that a ect access tocredit, and ways the shocks of COVID-19 exacerbate existing inequalities. J-PAL MENA is actively working towards understanding barriers that restrict female laborforce participation, and we are open to collaborating with policymakers in government andNGOs  who are interested in designing and evaluating innovative new ways of improvingwomen’s access to and participation in the region’s labor markets. Reach out to NorhanMuhab, Senior Research Associate at J-PAL MENA, and Nadeen ElAshmawy, Policy Associateat J-PAL MENA, to learn more about our work and  nd out how we can collaborate.AUTHORED BYNadeen ElAshmawyPolicy Associate , J-PAL Middle East and North AfricaNorhan MuhabSenior Research Associate , J-PAL Middle East and North AfricaAdam OsmanScienti c Director, J-PAL Middle East and North AfricaPOLICYPrevious NextRelated Content08/02/2021 Improving female labor force participation in MENA | The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Labhttps://www.povertyactionlab.org/blog/11-2-20/improving-female-labor-force-participation-mena 5/6BLOGStrengthening the Egyptian educationsystem: A recap from the GlobalEvidence for Egypt spotlight seminar oneducationBLOGDesigning adaptive social assistanceduring COVID-19: A recap from theEvidence for Egypt Spotlight WebinarEVALUATIONThe E ects of Misperceptions of SocialNorms on Female Labor Force08/02/2021 Improving female labor force participation in MENA | The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Labhttps://www.povertyactionlab.org/blog/11-2-20/improving-female-labor-force-participation-mena 6/6J-PAL400 Main StreetE19-201Cambridge, MA 02142USAContact+1 617 324 6566info@povertyactionlab.orgStay InformedReceive our NewslettersSubscribe Privacy PolicyAccessibility   Participation in Saudi Arabia

Improving female labor force participation in MENA

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Improving female labor force participation in MENA

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