São Paulo – Over the past 40 years, women in Middle East and North Africa have enjoyed improvements in quality of life and access to healthcare and education. However, they still account for a small share of the labour force, according to Opening doors: gender equality in the Middle East and North Africa, a study released last Friday (15th) by the World Bank.
According to the study, the women interviewed stated repeatedly that they wish to work, but complained about the dearth of opportunities due to cultural restrictions in the region.
The World Bank’s vice president for the Middle East and North Africa, Inger Andersen, said the study should help the organization to develop strategies that foster the inclusion of women in the labour market. “We want to ensure that our country dialogues and Bank-supported programs and policies are informed by a gender perspective,” says Andersen in the study.
The survey shows female literacy rates increased faster between 1985 and 2010 in the Middle East and North Africa than in Southeast Asia, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Only in the Asia-Pacific region was the average literacy rate higher than in the Arab countries. According to the study, in eight Arab countries, more women than men enter universities.
In most of the Western countries, says the study, the women-to-men labour market ratio is nearly one-to-one. In the Arab countries, women account for 25% of the labour force. However, the difference is even more pronounced in some countries. In Yemen, less than 10% of workers are women, and in Saudi Arabia, less than 15%. In Kuwait, women comprise roughly 40% of the workforce.
The study claims that the creation of tools for including women in the labour market must be accompanied by policies that enable the political and civic participation of women in society. It also provides that gender equality be backed by laws.
The World Bank director for poverty reduction and economic management, Manuela Ferro, said Arab countries invest largely in the education of women, but do not take advantage of their potential for growth. “Greater participation of women in the labor force is smart economics,” she said.
Read the full study: http://bit.ly/143131d
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
