Economically active Egyptian female youth face a multitude of obstacles as they seek
gainful employment in the country’s constrained and segmented labor market. Those with higher
educations are no exception: while young female university graduates are considerably more
likely to be in the labor force than females with lower educational attainment, over one-third
(35.5%) ages 21-30 were unemployed as of 2014 (Population Council, 2014). Among those who
have secured employment, poor job quality and work informality may further compromise
access to good jobs and decent livelihoods (Barsoum 2013). Although numerous factors affect a
young woman’s prospects in the contemporary labor market, this mixed methods analysis will
focus on the manner in which socioeconomic determinants beyond the control of the individual
may compromise the professional horizons of young female degree-holders.
Based on the results of this study, I speculate that the labor market prospects of young
Egyptian females with university degrees are affected not only by effort-related attributes that
the individual has control over, or by gender-related obstacles, but may additionally be informed
by her socioeconomic background, a dimension of in-market inequality of opportunity. While
family and school effects may drive socioeconomic differentials in labor market outcomes, the
qualitative evidence suggests that wealth-based discrimination may take place on the side of
employers. This discrimination appears to have two main manifestations: Firstly, I argue that
circumstance-determined access to advantageous familial or social networks (known as “wasta”
in Arabic) may affect youth labor market outcomes in Egypt for the university-educated. As will
be discussed, wasta is a heterogeneous concept that, in some cases, signifies social capital
accumulation. However, in other contexts it falls within the parameters of market discrimination
as outlined by economic literature.
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Secondly, I speculate that a degree-holder’s labor market prospects may additionally be
affected by her ability to demonstrate and embody a higher socioeconomic “image” that private
sector employers desire. Applying the social theory of Pierre Bourdieu, a candidate’s prestige
markers and family characteristics inform her “symbolic capital”, which firm decision-makers
may rely on as an indicator of expected productivity. Such candidate selection strategies would
thus lead to statistical discrimination. While it is difficult to fully untangle market signaling from
statistical discrimination and symbolic capital, the evidence does suggest that the possession of
certain prestige markers, as well as indicators of family wealth, are relevant to a firm’s candidate
selection process.
The purpose of this study is to explore the evidence available on class and labor market
entry amongst university educated, economically active young women. It is important that
readers keep the following points in mind. First, the emphasis on females is not intended to
suggest that socioeconomic characteristics are less compromising for young males with this
educational attainment: quite the latter appears to be true. However, I initially set out to better
understand the challenges that female degree-holders are encountering, and as will be discussed
later, the qualitative data has directed me towards the question of family socioeconomic
background and labor market outcomes. Many of the findings may be generalizable to young
male degree-holders as well. Secondly, the analysis should also not mislead readers to believe
that socioeconomic status is the primary barrier to decent work for highly educated females, as
young women in Egypt face numerous cultural and geographic barriers to work that contribute to
their low labor force participation and high unemployment as well. Finally, this study is not
intended to suggest that young women with higher educations in Egypt face greater barriers to
work than their less educated counterparts. In many urban areas of the country, their human
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capital accumulation is quite economically enabling relative to females with lower educational
attainment. However, this demographic does face unique barriers to desirable employment, and it
is important to analyze these obstacles accordingly.
Like previous quantitative research, the OLS procedures utilized in this study indicate
that labor market outcomes are significantly correlated with circumstantial factors related to
family background. The qualitative evidence, which consists of 16 interviews with economically
active young (ages 22-30) female degree-holders, suggests that many private sector companies
may be pursuing discriminatory practices and that public sector entry is highly contingent on
personal connections. Considering the strengths and shortcomings of the evidence available, a
central question to this study is whether in-market inequality of opportunity is actually driven by
family effects, low quality schooling in the public education system, discriminatory practices, or
a combination of these factors. While my analysis does not entirely untangle these mechanisms,
it does demonstrate the importance of future research efforts aimed at isolating effort-driven and
circumstantial (particularly socioeconomic) factors that contribute to the inequality of
opportunity among the tertiary-educated and to further explore the underlying causes of these
differentials in labor market outcomes.
In light of the high unemployment amongst the university educated, the persistently low
labor force participation of females, and the growth of work informality in Egypt since the late
1990’s, this study has considerable policy relevance. First, persistent unemployment and labor
force dropouts among university degree-holders result in the underutilization of human capital
resources and the marginalization of young Egyptians with the highest educational attainment.
Additionally, the disenchantment experienced by tertiary educated, jobless or underemployed
youth may fuel political instability in the coming years. Moreover, seemingly insurmountable
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barriers to desirable work for females may result in increased labor force dropouts and
augmenting gender imbalances in the white-collar sector in the coming decades. This may
compromise efforts to promote gender equality and greater female representation in Egyptian
society.
Following this introduction, the study is organized as follows: Section 2 provides
background information on Egyptian higher education and labor market fluctuations since the
1950’s, as well as a literature review focused on in-market inequality of opportunity in Egypt and
market discrimination. Section 3 explains the methodological framework of this study, outlining
both the qualitative and quantitative components and highlighting the strengths and shortcomings
of both approaches utilized. Section 4 presents and discusses the quantitative and qualitative
outcomes. Section 5 concludes with closing remarks and policy recommendations.