Women and Economic Reform in Egypt: Impact of Production Changes on Female Waged Labor Force Participation

Abstract: The IMF discourse on women’s unemployment in Egypt mostly has focused on infrastructural issues as a key barrier to women’s access to the job market. The scarcity of public nurseries and the unavailability of safe transportation are especially challenging. Our interviews confirmed that these two issues are of utmost importance to women. Nevertheless, we argue that there has been no to little focus on the deeper structural issues concerning the productive side of the economy and its relation to women employment, especially the impact of production changes on women in the aftermath of the 2016 Economic Reform Program (ERP).