Disability, Care and Women’s Labor Force Participation in Egypt
Women participation in the labor market can be hampered by their frequent engagement in unpaid care. Globally, they do three times more of the world’s unpaid work than men. This outcome is not destiny. On the contrary, economic policies that recognize, reduce and redistribute unpaid work could increase their participation in the labor force, promote sustained economic growth, and advance gender equality.
The challenge is how to measure the extent of the burden and benefits of unpaid care work, and to identify its causes so as to take the necessary actions. Exacerbating this challenge further is that social norms usually assign unpaid work exclusively to women, which means that change would require a cultural transformation, in addition to removing the prevailing structural barriers to women’s labor force participation.