Conference Paper
Occupational Segregation and the Gender Wage Gap in Egypt, 1988–2023
No.
ERF_31_LB217
Publisher
ERF
Date
March, 2025
Topic
J. Labor and Demographic Economics
Female labor force participation in Egypt remains dismally low, and labor-market wages consistently under-reward women for their work compared to men. The systematic channeling of women to lower-paying sectors, employers and occupation groups, and the associated downward pressure on wages in those positions this produces, may partially explain both phenomena. This chapter assesses the relevance of the occupational segregation hypothesis in Egypt over the long term, using a comprehensive set of labor market surveys for 1988-2023. Our results show that women are largely concentrated in agricultural occupations when non-market work is included and in a handful of professional professions mostly teaching and nursing, when examining only employment by the market definition, despite high rates of educational attainment in recent years. Our results confirm that occupational segregation has a strong impact on gender wage gaps, particularly at the top of the earnings distribution, and the existence of glass ceilings on women’s wage growth. We conclude that the struggle to close the gender pay gap in Egypt is contingent on empowering women to attain the same opportunities as men when joining the labor force, to work in the same sectors, firms and occupation groups at large.
Research Fellows
Shireen AlAzzawi
Lecturer, Economics Department, Santa Clara University
Authors
Vladimir Hlasny
Economic Affairs Officer, UN Economic and Social...