Policy Briefs
No Place for a Woman:Employers’ Discriminationand Hiring Challengesin Less Feminized Sectorsin Egypt
No.
SP 7
Publisher
ILO and ERF
Date
November, 2023
In a nutshell:
- Interview data shows that there are overt discriminatory views against hiring women in certain sectors in Egypt, concurring with a minimal to no presence of women in such sectors.
- The analysis of this qualitative data shows that these discriminatory views shroud a myriad set of barriers that employers themselves face in hiring women
- Poor access to transportation in industrial areas is one major barrier that renders women’s employment in these areas too costly due to the need to provide private means of transportation to workers. Safety issues aside, the distant locations and the long commute further lengthens the work day for
- working women making it difficult for women with children to work in these industrial areas.
- The weak support that women workers receive in their care responsibilities in the family realm perpetuates commonly held perceptions about high absenteeism among employers, leading to what is termed as statistical discrimination against female workers
- There is also serious decent work deficit in some of these workplaces, with reported long hours, double shifting, and heavy lifting that exceeds the maximum weights allowed by international labor conventions.
- Cultural norms pertaining to sex segregation and the fact that there are very few women in these sectors further limit the potentials of women’s employment in these workplaces
Research Fellows
Ghada Barsoum
Associate Professor and Chair of the Department...