Gender in the Middle East and North Africa

The brief provides a comprehensive analysis of the legal and policy barriers affecting women's economic participation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Based on the persistent gender disparities in labor force participation and unemployment rates, the brief leverages insights from the Women, Business and the Law (WBL) dataset to identify key legal constraints, evaluate reform progress, and offer actionable recommendations for policymakers to accelerate gender equality reforms.

In Yemen, women and girls face multiple obstacles that hinder progress toward gender equality and limit their economic participation. The ongoing conflict has devastated the lives, health, and economic prospects of ordinary Yemenis, and deepened vulnerabilities, especially for women and girls. However, global experience has shown that women often take on the role of head of household and actively participate in income-generating activities during times of crisis.

This note introduces initial findings on the potential of women’s entrepreneurship in cleantech in Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia. It draws on the limited research available at the intersection of gender, entrepreneurship, and climate tech and uses insights from interviews with ecosystem actors in Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia to bring attention to the potential and multiple layers of opportunities offered by women’s entrepreneurship in climate tech.

Female labor force participation in the Mashreq is exceptionally low, particularly among mothers with young children. The second State of the Mashreq Women Report: Who Cares? Care Work and Women’s Labor Market Outcomes in Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon examines the potential for care policies to support greater female labor force participation. 

In 2019-2020, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) introduced a historic package of legal reforms aimed at strengthening women’s economic participation, in line with its national policy commitment to gender balance. The reforms signified a major milestone for the region, introducing paid parental leave in the private sector for the first time in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), enabling women to choose where to live and to travel outside the home and internationally in the same way as men.