Egypt Gender Country Profile
Description
The overall objective of the study was to reveal the social and cultural diversity in Egypt as related to gender. The study concept focused on the following four sub-objectives:
- to pinpoint cultural norms as relevant for gender,
- to analyze the main effects of socio-economic change on gender relations,
- to identify tensions between gender relevant norms and practices as well as
- to analyze mechanisms to cope with change and its effects on gender roles.
Resource: Study on Gender and Sociocultural Diversity in Egypt The study gives an overview of women’s status in Egypt, based on the review of the results of previous research and studies and complemented by results of the structured survey. In addition, the study investigated the influence of changing socioeconomic conditions on gender perceptions and gender roles, both at the normative level and the level of practice. This was done by focusing on a number of key issues to trace how Egyptians adapt to change and how they cope when practice comes into conflict with prevailing norms and traditions. Key issues comprised the areas of gender and the family – with a focus on basic notions of gender roles, decision-making, the division of labor as well as disputes and violence – as well as education and socialization, women’s freedom of movement and reproductive health. Most of these issues were both tackled by the structured survey, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. Discourse analysis was used as the main instrument to analyze results of focus group discussions. This allowed for extracting key elements of prevailing gender perceptions while tracing the influence of different socio-political and cultural forces. Analysis shed also light on areas of conflict between norms and practice and between men and women as well as on strategies to reconcile norms with practice and to negotiate conflicting interests.
Services
The study consists of
- a literature review,
- a structured survey, implemented in five governorates (Cairo, Gharbiya, Alexandria, North Sinai and Qena) with 400 questionnaires,
- a qualitative study including 16 focus group discussions (females and males) in five governorates and five in-depth interviews with personalities who have influence on public opinion (Priest, Sheikh, gender newspaper specialist and social university professor), and
- a review of six gender-specific or gendersensitive development projects of different organizations that are included in the annex.
Five background variables have been used for analysis of the structured survey and focus group discussions: sex, class, region, age and religion. In view of the small sample size, results cannot be generalized or taken as accurate statistics but should rather be taken as indicators that complement the findings of previous studies.