Women’s employment in Egypt had been declining for some time even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper examines the economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis on female labor force participation in Egypt, with a particular focus on the intersection of COVID-19, child care, and women’s employment. Closures in schools and nurseries and women’s disproportionate role in child care compounded the effects of COVID-19 on women’s employment. We find that women with young children in our sample were facing substantial barriers to care access such as information barriers, financial barriers, as well as safety and quality concerns about nurseries. Moreover, gender role attitudes have remained unchanged across generations. Efforts to address women’s employment may thus need to address gender norms and care work within the household in conjunction with child care through nurseries.
Assessing the labor market impact of COVID-19 on women with young children in Egypt
- Noha Fadl
- Caroline Krafft
- Bruno Crepon
- Stefano Caria
- Abdelrahman Nagy
- Hala ElBehairy