Working Papers
A No Woman’s Place: Employers’ Discrimination and Hiring Challenges in Less Feminized Sectors in Egypt
No.
SWP 2023_2
Publisher
ILO and ERF
Date
November, 2023
Topic
J1. Demographic Economics
There are overt discriminatory views against hiring women in certain sectors in Egypt, concurring with minimal to no presence of women in such sectors. This study documents these overt practices and seeks to understand their context by relying on in-depth interviews with 32 employers in such sectors. The analysis shows that discriminatory views are shrouded with a myriad set of barriers that employers themselves face in hiring women. These relate to poor access to transportation in industrial areas; the weak support that women workers receive in their care responsibilities, which supports perceptions about high absenteeism among female workers; weak labor regulations leading to decent work deficits in these sectors; and cultural norms pertaining to sex segregation.
Research Fellows
Ghada Barsoum
Associate Professor and Chair of the Department...