The American University in Cairo School of Global Affairs and Public Policy Between Family and Market: the decline of professional employment among Egyptian female university graduates A Thesis Submitted to The Cynthia Nelson Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies: In Partial Fulfillment of the requirements for The degree of Master of Arts in Gender and Women’s Studies in the Middle East and North Africa Specialization By Magda Aboul Ela Under Supervision of Dr. Hania Sholkamy June 2012 1 The American University in Cairo School of Global Affairs and Public Policy Between Family and Market: the decline of professional employment among Egyptian female university graduates A Thesis Submitted by Magda Aboulela Ahmed Submitted to The Cynthia Nelson Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies: June 2012 In Partial Fulfillment of the requirements for The degree of Master of Arts in Gender and Women’s Studies in the Middle East and North Africa Specialization has been approved by Hania Sholkamy: _________________________ Thesis Adviser Affiliation: SRC Date: ______________________________________ Ghada Barsoum: __________________________ Thesis Second Reader Affiliation: PPAD Date: ______________________________________ Mulki Al-Sharmani: ________________________ Thesis Third Reader Affiliation: SRC Date: ______________________________________ Martina Rieker Institute Director Date: ______________________________________ Nabil Fahmy, Ambassador: ____________________ Dean of GAPP Date: ______________________________________ 2 Acknowledgement My whole gratitude is to Allah to complete this research. Completing my Masters degree could be the greatest challenge in my whole life. I resumed my studies after long time of stopping. I am, also, working for a full time job and a mother for three children. It was certainly a challenging journey that needed the support and the understanding of the people around me. My first gratitude is for my advisor, Dr. Hania Sholkamy for her endless support and understanding since the first class in my study. She has patiently been giving knowledge, advice and encouragement. Her invaluable guidance helped a lot in completing my thesis. My gratitude also extends to my thesis committee members: Dr. Ghada Barsoum and Dr. Mulki Al-Sharmani. They added value to my research through their excellent feedback. I have special thanks to all Computer Science students and graduates who agreed to share my journey. They were very enthusiastic, understanding and supporting. I thank them for their trust and generosity in the time they spent during the interviews. I owe special thanks to my first informant whose “fadfada”, chit chat, was a guideline in exploring my topic of research. I wished to mention her name but she preferred to be anonymous. I do have sincere gratitude to the family of Computer Science and Engineering Department at the American University in Cairo, the Chair, the faculty and the staff who supported my professional and academic journey. I extend my special prayers to the soul of my late twin, Samia who was behind my start and exerted all the efforts to encourage me to continue the work. I also, extend my thanks to my sister, Nawal for her emotional supporting and everlasting prayers, especially during the hard times. I dedicate this research to my three children: Ahmed, Moataz and Mahmoud because without their understanding, love and support, I would not be able even to start. They bore with me the burden of this challenging journey. Ahmed initiated the journey by convincing me that “It is never too late”. Moataz kept following up on my study progress whereas Mahmoud was the tough critic for any laziness. I owe them my love and prayers. 3 Contents Chapter One: Introduction: .......................................................................................................................... 6 Questions to be answered: ......................................................................................................................... 9 Literature review: .................................................................................................................................... 11 Gender norms and Gender relations: ..................................................................................................... 11 Marriage and Family formation: ........................................................................................... 16 Marriage and women’s work: ............................................................................................... 21 Women’s secondary status in production economy: ........................................................... 26 Chapter two: Methodology and Framework .............................................................................................. 35 The Fieldwork: ........................................................................................................................................ 35 The Site: .................................................................................................................................................. 36 Qualitative methods: ............................................................................................................................... 40 In-depth interviews: .............................................................................................................. 43 Observation: .......................................................................................................................... 47 Focus group: .......................................................................................................................... 47 Ethics and confidentiality: ..................................................................................................... 48 Research challenges and obstacles: ......................................................................................................... 49 Chapter Three: The Familial self of Young Egyptian women and social determinants of professional employment ........................................................................................................................... 50 Marriage: ................................................................................................................................................. 51 Marriage’s importance from religious perspective:.............................................................. 52 Marriage’s importance from economic perspective:............................................................ 53 Marriage’s importance from a social perspective: ............................................................... 55 Marriage cost and dynamics of power: ................................................................................. 58 Marriage as an incentive for women to work: ...................................................................... 60 The importance of the family in Egypt: ................................................................................................... 61 Patriarchal connectivity and family: ...................................................................................... 63 The socialization of gender norms and young women’s employment: .................................................. 67 Socialization and reinforcement of gender norms: .............................................................. 69 4 Schooling and socialization of Egyptian young women: ....................................................... 70 The Gulf migration and the reinforcement of gender norms: ................................................................. 71 Chapter Four: The Economic Transition in Egypt and its effect on young women’s unemployment: ............................................................................................................................................ 74 Globalization and reshaping the role of the state: ................................................................................. 75 Neoliberalism: ......................................................................................................................................... 76 Structural Adjustment Policies: ............................................................................................................... 79 The characteristics of Structural Adjustment Policies and their impact on women’s unemployment in Egypt: ......................................................................................................................... 80 Privatization: ......................................................................................................................... 81 Informalization: ..................................................................................................................... 82 Feminization: ......................................................................................................................... 83 The implementation of SAPs and gendered unemployment: ................................................................. 86 The trends of female labor participation in Egypt under the SAPs: ........................................................ 88 Occupational segregation: .................................................................................................... 89 Gender gap in public and private sectors: ............................................................................ 91 Geographical Mobility and young women’s unemployment: ...............................................................