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MENA Women in the Economy
Rabat, December 8-9, 2005
Nadereh Chamlou
Senior Advisor to the Chief Economist
Economic and Sector Work
The Middle East and North Africa Region
Definitions
• Millennium Development Goal #3:
– Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, measured by:
• Educational attainment
• Formal labor force participation
• Political representation
• Difference between Sex and Gender
• Gender Equality:
– Equal access to opportunity
– Equal voice
– Equal treatment under the law
Why is Gender important?
• Low growth has led to low employment
generation – particularly among the young
• Significant evidence that gender inequity and
inequality impacts growth
• Gender inequality is the most pervasive type of
inequality which cuts across all other categories
of inequality – impacts development most deeply
The MENA Paradox:
…increasingly, talent pool equal among sexes
Extensive investment in social indicators…because
of shortfall in empowerment indicators
Women’s formal labor force participation
lowest among all regions
Women remain an untapped resource
Ratio of Actual to Predicted Female Participation in MENA and Selected Countries and Regions, 1980 and 2000
Actual: predicted ratio
2
1.8
MENA 1980
MENA 2000
1.6
Non-MENA 1980
Non-MENA 2000
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
Note: AFR4 = Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya and Senegal. EAP4 = Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand; EAC2 = Hungary and Poland and LAC4 = Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico.
Bahrain and Kuwait estimates are based on total female participation in the labor force (which includes foreign workers)
Source: World Bank staff estimates
AFR4
China
EAP4
ECA2
Turkey
India
LAC4
MENA
Iraq
Jordon
Bahrain
Iran, Islamic Rep of
Syrian Arab Rep
Algeria
Egypt Arab Rep of
Tunisia
Kuwait
Morocco
0
Characteristics of women in the labor market
Female Education and Labor Force Participation in MENA and EAP, 1970-2000
Percent
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
Female enrollment in secondary school, MENA
Female labor force particpation, MENA
10
Female enrollment in secondary school, EAP
Female labor force particpation, EAP
0
1970
1980
Note: In East Asia and the Pacific (EAP), secondary enrollment is for 1999 rather than 2000
Source: ILO 1996; World Bank 2003d, 2003j
1990
2000
Characteristics of women in the labor market
Female Unemployment Rates by Educational Level in MENA Countries, Various Years
Why? Differential Treatment under the Law
• Unequal rights and powers in the private sphere
• Unequal access to public sphere as interaction
with state may be mediated through a male kin:
–
–
–
–
Centrality of the family
Concept of male breadwinner
Concept of equity rather equality – defined roles
Code of modesty - “Protection” of women’s honor
Gender-based Legal Framework in MENA
• CEDAW (passed by all but Iran, albeit with
reservations – mainly in areas relating to
inheritance, family law)
• Constitution (guarantees equal rights for all
citizens)
• However, ordinary legislation is discriminatory:
• Personal Status Code based on Sharia (marriage, divorce,
custody, inheritance)
• Civil Status Code based on Western Legal Models (labor,
nationality, pensions, etc)
Example of Differential Treatment
Labor laws and regulations:
• Limitations on hours and type of work so as to protect women
• Mobility laws restricting women’s travel within and outside the
country
• Social benefits denominated in terms of number of female
employees (such as on-sight child-care)
• Permission of husband to work or freedom of movement
 These increase the implicit and explicit cost of women employees
The Effect of Differential Sex-based Treatment under the Law
Example: Implicit cost can function like a sex-based minimum wage
Men (covered)
Women (uncovered)
S
wage
S
wage
minimum wage
W
W0
W
W0
D1
E2
E1
E0
D0
employment
D0
E0
E1
employment
A minimum wage is imposed for men. This divides the labor market into two segments.
Employment in the Covered Market with decline --- employment in the Uncovered Market will rise
(assuming that men and women are perfect substitutes.)
Upward sloping female labor supply curve raises wages – to minimum wage level.
Results in decline in employment and the use of other factors of production, such as capital and
energy. Increase, causing a leftward shift of the demand curve for male labor (form D0 to D1).
Total employment declines.
Source: The Economics of Gender (Joyce Jacobson)
D1
Female labor force participation and higher
overall employment
Empirical evidence does not support the claim that women’s
increased labor force participation increases unemployment
Consequences of women’s low economic
participation to family and economy
• Cost to the family
– Egypt 25%, Jordan 20%, Morocco 17%
– Women’s work is increasingly the ticket between
poverty and middle class
– It is also an important source of income for
expenditures on better education and health of next
generation
• Cost to the economy
– For a subset of countries, GDP could have been
2.6% instead of 1.9% with greater female
participation in labor force.
– Translates into billions of dollars of lost opportunity
and development for the region.
Why gender issues are important for MENA
now?
•
Need to create 100 million jobs – economies have to be more market oriented
•
Well functioning markets depend on a level playing field for all players
•
Women constitute a large proportion of the work force – essential for
competitiveness
•
Women entrepreneurs – essential contributors to innovation and investment
•
Gender based discrimination -- invisible brain drain
•
Information technology changes meaning of geography, networks, production
methods – push for more knowledge content which opens up new
opportunities for new players
Agenda for Workshop
• Focus on Women’s Economic Rights and
Opportunities
consistent with religion, tradition, human
needs
• Three entry points:
– Public Policy
– Employment
– Entrepreneurship
Conclusion
• Gender is no for the sake of women but for welfare of society
• MENA countries will undergo vast reforms --focus on economic
rights to remove discrimination
• It is important to ensure the engender reform agenda:
– Create level playing field for all
– What is the magnitude of the problem and how does it affect the effects
that existing, or persistent, gender inequalities will have on the
outcomes and the success of economic policies; and
– the specific actions that are needed to mitigate gender based barriers—
the level of resources that are needed and who is best placed to act on
them, be it the government, NGOs, and the civil society.