The Economics of Women and Work in the Middle East and North Africa

Citation

Karatas‐Özkan, M. (2003), "The Economics of Women and Work in the Middle East and North Africa", Career Development International, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 109-116. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430310465543

This book is an edited collection of papers which provide a multifaceted analysis on the economics of female labour dynamics for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. In her introductory essay, the editor sets out at great length why she feels a special volume dedicated to the economics of women and work in MENA. In her words, “MENA region countries need to rise to meet the global challenges and changes in the years to come. A critical source of inefficiency in the region is the status of women, as evidenced by large gender gaps in literacy, education, legal rights and job opportunities” (p. 1). Thus, the editor identifies the greater need to study the subject matter for the MENA region – at both micro and macro levels. She suggests that, at the micro‐level, endogenous labour decision and welfare and at the macro‐level, market supply‐demand restrictions, labour segmentation, legal environments and wage gaps should be examined in depth. The focus of this book, therefore, is important and timely.

The book consists of an introductory essay and 15 papers that cover some of the topics mentioned above. In searching for alternative approaches, the editor includes the studies of both economists and other scholars in sociology, industrial relations and women’s studies in this volume. Due to the diversity of languages, level of economic development, religions, cultures and institutions of the countries in the region, she argues that there is not a single, unified approach to studying women and work in the MENA region and she emphasises at the outset that her primary intent is to provide readers from all branches of social sciences with a stimulating sample of the diverse approaches to women and work in the MENA.

Acknowledging that MENA itself is not a monolithic body and women and work issues have complex dimensions, this volume starts with a regional overview that is made up of five articles, all of which rely on international statistics. The first paper, by Nemat Shafik, analyses the gender gap in the region in order to explore alternatives for reducing gender inequities. He makes policy recommendations to governments in the region to reallocate resources away from male‐oriented services, urban areas, higher education, and curative medicine toward education programmes that would enlighten societies in the region about the benefits of increasing the level of women’s education and of employment. Hosni and Chanmala contribute to the debate in the second paper, in which they examine cross‐country evidence on the status of women in the MENA. Their conclusion regarding national policy and development prospects of the region aligns very much with the argument put forward in the previous article that MENA governments should employ policies to create more employment opportunities for women.

In the third complementary paper, Karshenan and Moghadam investigate the relationship between female labour force participation rates and economic adjustment in the MENA. They suggest a hypothesis to explain MENA’s low female labour force participation rates with female socio‐economic roles. The statistics provided in the Human Development Report by UN and other international statistics, such as UNESCO and the World Bank statistics are used to test this hypothesis and they conclude that the economic adjustment and development in the MENA is conditional on the improvement of the socio‐economic role of women.

The fourth paper, on regional overview, shifts from this general discussion of female labour participation rates and economic development to a more specific issue that is earnings inequality based on gender in the region. Zandvakili suggests the use of generalised entropy measures for this analysis combined with bootstrapping to identify earnings inequality between groups in order to understand overall earnings inequality. In the last, concluding paper, of the regional overview, Magdaham presents a summary of the macro trends in the region by examining problems and prospects of women’s employment in MENA in the context of competitive pressures of globalisation. Reviewing issues pertaining to women and employment in an era of economic restructuring, Magdaham sees similarities and differences across countries in the region. An overall trend of an increase in the supply of job‐seeking women and of a feminisation of government employment is observed; however, the social grounds on which these economic changes have been taking place are found to be problematic. As a result, the role of women’s organisations besides governments in the region is emphasised, in order to forge alliances with other social groups and articulate the interests of working women.

The ten remaining papers in this volume are all important reading as they are country studies most of which rely on empirical data collected through surveys and/or interviews. In that sense, they enrich the discussion on the topics introduced by the previous five articles. Assaad and El‐Hamidi investigate the determinants of female labour participation and hours of work in Egypt and they relate the form of work to the impact of woman’s life‐cycle, education, role and status within the family. Their final discussion of the patterns observed and issues tackled in the paper paves the way for further research. Olmsted’s paper proceeds with the discussion of occupational segregation and wage differences based on gender in another part of the region, in the Bethlehem area. The data used in this paper were drawn from a household survey conducted to a relatively large sample and interviews carried out with a small group of households. Her findings indicate a considerable occupational segregation as well as the wage gap between men and women. Examining the link of Palestinian employment to the Israeli economy, she argues that this wage gap is accentuated by men’s and women’s differential opportunities vis à vis the Israeli economy. In another study on this part of the region, Rema Herman examines the paradoxical nature of the employment of women in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, i.e. the coexistence of their equal representation with males at almost every level of education and their extreme marginalisation from the formal labour force. This paper nicely complements with Olmsted’s paper by locating the issue in the distorted nature of Palestinian labour markets as they were patterned and conditioned by the economic policies aimed at meeting the needs of the Israeli economy.

The paper by Simel Esim examines gender‐based earnings differences among the urban self‐employed women in Turkey. She argues that, in addition to human capital variables, there are social and institutional factors which affect the earnings of the self‐employed women. Illustrating the limitations of the human capital earnings theory, she proposes a more nuanced model of earnings that is the gender‐based factors of earnings (GBFE) model, which is an augmentation of the basic human capital model. The data used for this study were drawn from a survey conducted in seven provinces of Turkey, representing different levels of regional development and urbanisation. Using some quantitative data analysis techniques, her findings indicate that women’s lower earnings are not a result of free and rational choices, but rather women’s choices are a function of a dynamic and historical process and are likely to evolve within the context of social, cultural and institutional inequality.

The discussion on Turkey follows with a paper by Zeytinoglu, Ozmen, Katrinli, Kabasakal and Arbak. The authors investigate factors affecting female managers’ careers in Turkey. Relying on their data from their survey of 432 managers, of whom 41 are women, they focus on the impact of different levels of education, family’s socio‐economic status and sexist norms, which are culturally pervasive and legally institutionalised, on the creation of barriers for women attempting to develop managerial careers. Their analysis demonstrates that the level of education and family’s socio‐economic status affect the women’s careers and they also suggest that sex‐role stereotypes and a discriminatory organisational culture might serve as barriers to women’s advancement into managerial positions.

The third paper on Turkey, which was authored by Gunluk‐Senesen and Ozer, makes a sectoral analysis to women’s work and studies the changing structure of employment in the Turkish banking sector in the post‐1980 era from the perspective of sex‐based occupational segregation. The questionnaires and interviews conducted to 16 banks have revealed that, although women represent a significant proportion of the total workforce in the banking sector, they are not equally represented at all levels. They assert that during their career advancement, women face a “glass ceiling”. Their findings point out two general and related trends in the banking sector in Turkey: feminisation of employment and an improvement in the education level of banking employees. They suggest that the employment of women in relatively inferior jobs, compared to their educational background is an issue that needs to be explored in depth and, consequently, one should be cautious in evaluating the recent trend of feminisation of the banking sector as a definitely positive trend.

The fourth paper on Turkey, by Okten, takes a quite different approach to studying women’s employment in Turkey. She studies informal labour markets and the role of women in post‐Fordist production in Turkey. The assumption around which the paper is structured is that economic globalisation is based on the “post‐Fordist” re‐organisation of production and this process brings about new paradigms in every fundamental aspect of social life. Her paper starts with the argument that women’s status, in relation to work, in Turkey reflects the interaction of cultural, social and economic dynamics. She emphasises the significance of the contextual factors, including socio‐cultural framework, religious and non‐religious references and economic policies. She argues that the era of globalisation and post‐Fordist production has intensified the differentiated labour market structure for women. A different form of socialisation is observed in the urban community life on the peripheries, in Turkey. It is the informal forms of employment resulting from this kind of socialisation which is performed through traditional communication and organisation networks within neighbourhoods, kin groups, and religious sects. She maintains that the working conditions in such informal enterprises require the exploitation of labour through family, neighbourhood and traditional female roles. Her final concluding assertion is significant, as it incorporates the contextual factors, by arguing the compatibility of this social role attributed to women with the political Islamist movement in Turkey.

Admitting that economic studies on the power relations of working MENA women have been scarce, in the last paper on Turkey, Cinar and Anbarci direct the debate towards the issue of gender power in terms of contribution of women working in informal or formal labour markets to household income. Based on in‐depth interviews with academic scholars and the subsequent field survey, they developed four proxies of power for working women, including income, absolute and proportional spending, and personal leisure time and they conclude that all are defined relative to the spouse. Their conclusion adds another dimension to the argument of the previous paper in the sense that the growth of women’s informal work is strongly related to the economic hardships and poverty of low‐income households.

The last two papers are on Iran and the first one focusses on the impact of education on fertility. Based on a household survey data, the author shows that, in Iran, education and fertility are closely related, over time and across households, in rural and urban areas. The paper touches on the issue of the future role of women in the Iranian society and the argument ends by questioning the labour market and the legal and political environment in Iran regarding their nature to accommodate or frustrate the ambitions of the new generation of Iranian women. The book ends with Mogdaham’s paper that moves the previous argument forward in an exploratory attempt examining the legal and ideological treatment of women’s work in the Islamic Republic of Iran. She analyses the post‐revolutionary legal system’s recognition of three categories of productive female labour: marital duties, household labour and participation in the labour market.

In general, the editor has achieved a volume, which succeeds in grappling with the complexities of the women’s work by covering some important aspects of the issue from different perspectives. The breadth and diversity of the volume fit well with the editor’s initial argument that different approaches should be taken in researching the issues surrounding women and work in the MENA region. The book offers readers a chance to appreciate the female labour dynamics in the MENA along some interesting and useful generative dimensions. In addition, there are a number of interesting empirical studies. In her choice of articles, the editor has managed to achieve a nice balance between analytical rigour and practical ideas, i.e. the policy recommendations and this gives the book a wider appeal. The book is, therefore, recommended, not only does it synthesise much of the debate and provides empirical support for the arguments made, but it also provides a useful reference point on the continuing debates surrounding women and work in the MENA region, which would inform further research.