Women’s Participation in Labor Market in Egypt : Constraints and Opportunities

This research deals with female labor force participation and its determinants in the Egyptian society using the "Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey" (ELMPS) 2012. More precisely, the paper studies the individual, households and community determinants of the Egyptian woman's decision to enter the labor force. It answered the question on whether these determinants are affecting her decision to be employed or not and to be employed in the public sector or not, once she entered the labor force. Our results show that factors affecting women's labor force participation decision are not the same and may not play the same role for their decision concerning her employment status, once they enter the labor market. Moreover, community context plays an important role in their labor force participation decision, but once an Egyptian woman enters the labor force, community context is not a significant determinant anymore concerning her employment status