International Organizations and the Promotion of Gender Political and Economic Equality in Egypt : The Role of UN Women and USAID

Abstract

During the last six years, women played a primary role in shaping the country’s political and economic realities and have strongly participated in their country’s goals of development and social justice. Despite that, Egypt ranks low in terms of gender equality as women have lower participation in the work force and lower literacy rate. In other words, Egypt is a country with a very high rate of gender discrimination. In the meantime, there is a belief that empowering women and having them integrated as active participants in the economy of the country is an essential factor to promote Egypt’s economic growth. The increase of female participation in the labor force is essential for the increase of the GDP. Therefore, international organizations including UN Women and USAID are seeking to improve Egyptian women’s status and decrease the gap between men and women. In other words, the programs of UN Women and USAID are actively involved with sectors in the Egyptian government to empower women and remove all kinds of constraints to their economic participation. They aim to improve skills, decrease illiteracy rate among women and raise women’s participation rate in the work force.