Egypt & Societal Roles: Unemployment and Social Security
In Egypt, societal expectations are one of the major cultural obstacles to women’s equal access to quality education, especially in rural areas. However, these social roles do not necessarily prevent women from going to school in Egypt: they prevent them from truly entering the labor force. Schooling for women in Egypt seems to be more about the social value of schooling rather than its use or intellectual value: “for many of the women, education for employment did not seem to be encouraged; in fact whereas employment was the most important reason for male’s education (62%), raising family and being a better mother was listed as the most important reason for educating girls” (Ghazal 27). Though legally, Egyptian women have the right to attend school, seek employment, vote, and even run for office, their literacy rates remain at 65.4 percent, and women make up only 23 percent of the labor force (Lekas 4). Furthermore, “women account for only 12 percent of the trained employees and 10 percent of the executive employees” (Loewe 4).
The reasons that women are severely underemployed in Egypt are complex, but stem primarily from the societal expectations of women which are reinforced by Egypt’s social institutions. Egyptian women must adhere to strict social rules enforced by their families, from things as relatively minor as a curfew, to living at home until marriage, to the challenge of accepting all educational, professional, and personal choices made for her by the family (Ghazal 77). An interview with an Egyptian tertiary-level graduate student, Mahi, revealed how her family reacted to her education: “When I asked Mahi what she meant by living in a male society, she responded that the ‘first and last words are for males. My needs or the things I want are subject to his approval. If I want to continue my studies my father might object. Maybe, if I were married, my husband would refuse. Then what?’ (Mahi, May 18, 2013)” (Ghazal 80). Mahi’s experience is typical of Egyptian women, who are “sometimes deemed second-class citizens, denied full legal identities by exclusion from the rights, privileges, and security entitled to individuals of society” (Lekas 2).
This is quantified in women’s wages, since women in almost every country in the world are paid less than men for the same work (CIA World Factbook). In Egypt, the wage equality for similar work is just 0.78 on a scale from zero to one, where one represents complete equality (World Economic Forum). This can essentially be interpreted to mean that Egyptian women are paid about 78 percent of what men receive for the same work.
Another social institution that works in tandem with women’s low wages to present an obstacle to schooling is the Egyptian social security system, which is neither efficient nor equitable. In 2000, Egypt spent more than 20 percent of its GDP on social protection, though its social security systems still grow at a much higher rate than other developing countries, despite Egypt’s quickly aging population (Loewe 6). In the past decade, already-low pensions have been decreasing as costs of living increase, and the average pensions in 2000 were all “below the per capita expenditure at the lower poverty line in 1999/2000 (80.30-92.40 [Egyptian pounds]), i.e. they do not satisfy basic needs at the poverty line” (UNFPA). In addition, Nasser’s guarantee of government employment for all university graduates drained government resources considerably between 1973 and 1987, leaving a smaller pool for pensions in the past two decades (UNFPA). For the future, this means that “[t]he social security system in Egypt faces a long-term shortage in funding, with the increasing borrowing of the central government, low nominal rates of return and increasing financial rates” (UNFPA).
In terms of equity, Egypt’s social security programs effectively discriminate against the poor, and benefit the upper and middle classes: “2.3 percent of GDP is spent on subsidies but less than 0.2 percent on social assistance” (Loewe 6). However, the government system is also highly biased against women, especially unmarried or widowed women. In general, women usually draw lower pensions than men due to their smaller salaries and therefore lower pension contributions (Loewe 4). Furthermore, to even apply for a pension or social assistance from the state, one must hold an identity card; in 2000, only 55 percent of women held these (Loewe 4). Finally, due to societal roles, Egyptian women can face specific risks of social shock that do not affect men, and against which they are ineffectively protected by Egyptian social security. For example, women who are widowed receive low pensions, and divorced or abandoned women are not entitled to any benefits whatsoever (UNFPA). Additionally, it is nearly impossible for widowed elderly women to return to work or to enter the labor force for the first time, and so they become entirely dependent on their families, or their pensions, which are below the poverty line (Loewe 4).
Wage inequality, combined with Egypt’s inefficient and discriminatory social security system, mean that women’s education is not economically efficient for the family. This is especially true if they are poor or live rurally, where education is much harder to find already. Therefore, for a poor Egyptian family, it may be more economically efficient to send their sons to school and their daughters to work, since overall “an educated boy can earn more than an educated girl” and Egyptian families must rely on their offspring to support them in retirement rather than the poor pension system (Kugler 15). These social institutions reinforce the societal norms that leave women at home, out of school, and underemployed.
It is impossible to identify a single actor that creates and perpetuates these obstacles. However, it is possible to clarify that these social institutions are continued by a number of phenomena. For instance, the Egyptian social security system is one institution that creates an obstacle to women’s education by forcing families to consider future financial need above education for all their children. Additionally, the male-dominant society leaves women, in practice, as second-class citizens, despite their legal rights.