Beyond Job Creation: Closing Egypt’s Gender Gap in Work
FromMay 05, 2026 To May 05, 2026
Hybrid Event
Egypt’s development strategy places strong emphasis on job creation, entrepreneurship promotion, private sector development, digital transformation and structural economic reform. These efforts aim to stimulate growth, enhance competitiveness and expand economic opportunity.
Yet, despite significant investment in employment schemes and SME support programs, gender gaps in labor force participation in Egypt remain among the widest globally. Many women face barriers that go beyond unemployment rates: limited access to formal jobs, concentration in informal work, care responsibilities, mobility constraints, and challenges in starting or growing businesses.
These constraints cut across social classes, geographic locations and sectors of employment, affecting women in both formal and informal work, as wage earners and as entrepreneurs. While current reforms seek to stimulate economic participation, an important policy question persists:
Is the main issue that existing policies are not working effectively in practice, or are deeper changes needed in how work, education and opportunity are structured in society?
It also raises another important dimension: Are the main barriers economic and institutional-such as childcare, safe transport, and skills mismatch- or are social norms and expectations about women’s role equally central? And if norms matter, are they already changing, or do they require deliberate intervention?
In this context, inclusive and sustainable development cannot be reduced to job creation alone. It requires examining whether women are being integrated into existing economic structures, or whether those structures themselves should evolve to enable meaningful participation across social classes.
Core question:
Are current economic reforms integrating women into the labor market, or does meaningful inclusion require further structural transformation (education, care, private sector incentives, and social norms)?
Student essays and the subsequent debate will be organized around three analytical pillars:
- Are current efforts failing because they’re not being carried out effectively, or because they were designed without fully understanding the barriers women actually face?
- Can we solve the gender gap by focusing on jobs alone, or does real change require reform beyond the labor market?
- Can the government close the gender gap on its own, or does the private sector also need to change how it hires, pays, and promotes women?
This initiative aims to:
- Deepen students’ understanding of Egypt’s development strategy through a gender- and sustainability-focused analytical lens.
- Encourage evidence-based debate on the opportunities and risks associated with innovation-led growth.
- Strengthen students’ ability to articulate and defend policy positions using economic reasoning.
- Foster meaningful interaction between students, researchers, and policymakers from academia and international institutions.
- Measure learning and perception shifts resulting from structured debate and expert engagement.
The event began with a high-level presentation by a representative from the World Bank, situating the discussion within Egypt’s current development strategy and highlighting key evidence on innovation, gender inclusion, and environmental sustainability. Following the expert inputs, the two finalist students presented their essays as members of the panel, each articulating a distinct position in response to the core question. Their presentations will frame the central arguments and trade-offs that will guide the subsequent discussion.
Agenda
Date
05/05/2026
Location
Hybrid Event
Time
From 11:00 am To 1:00 pm
Speakers
Authors
Dina Abdel Fattah
Assistant Professor and Chair, Mohamed Shafik Gabr...
Research Fellows
Samer Atallah
Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research,...
Speakers
Stephane Guimbert
Division Director for Egypt, Yemen, and Djibouti,...
Research Fellows
Raed Safadi
Managing Director, Economic Research Forum
Speakers
Nagla Rizk
Professor of Economics and Founding Director of...