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Egypt Changing Status of Women
Since the early 1970s, women's status has been changing,
mostly because an increasing number of women have joined the
nonagricultural workforce. According to government estimates, the
number of working women doubled from 500,000 to 1 million between
1978 and 1980. By 1982 women accounted for 14 percent of all
wage-earning and salaried employees throughout the country.
Although substantial numbers of women were in the professions,
particularly education, engineering, and medicine, most women
held low-paying jobs in factories, offices, and service
industries. Half of all employed women held jobs such as street
cleaners, janitors, hotel and domestic servants, and hospital
aides. In 1990 women accounted for more than 12 percent of all
industrial workers; most female factory workers were in textiles,
food processing, and pharmaceuticals.
Data as of December 1990
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