Exploring Women’s Role in the Egyptian Economy

Updated 3/8/2025 9:00:00 AM

Every year on March 8^th, the world celebrates women as essential contributors to the global political, economic, and social scene. In line with this, Egypt launched the “National Strategy for Empowering Egyptian Women 2030” in 2017, promoting political, leadership, economic, and social empowerment, and protection.

In this Factsheet, we will know more about the key objectives of the national strategy, while shedding light on the current status of Egyptian women across social, economic, and political aspects.

In January 2024, Egypt’s female population reached 51.47 million, representing 48.6% of the total population. In the 2023/2024 academic year, 1.86 million females were enrolled in higher education, accounting for 49.5% of total students enrolled in universities.
As for financial inclusion, 23.3 million women had financial accounts, including banking accounts, post accounts, and e-wallets, by the end of 2024. This figure marked a 265% increase compared to 2016.
Currently, Egypt has four female ministers, making up around 13% of the Egyptian Cabinet.
The female labor force participation rate in Egypt fell slightly between 2019 and 2023 from 15.9% to 15.3%.
In the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2024, the female labor force reached 6.57 million, representing 19.8% of Egypt’s total labor force, with the number of employed females standing at 5.481 million. Meanwhile, the number of unemployed reached 1.088 million, leading to an unemployment rate of 16.6% among Egyptian females.
In 2024, Egypt ranked 135^th out of 146 countries and 10^th among MENA countries on the Global Gender Gap Index, with a score of 0.629.
Women’s representation on company boards has more than doubled since 2019 when they comprised only 10% of total board members in Egyptian companies. In 2023, this percentage increased to 23.3%, with an annual average growth rate of 3% over the past four years.
Among different sectors, non-banking financial companies had the highest representation of women on boards at 25.2%, followed by companies listed on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) at 21.7%. The banking sector and public enterprises followed with women’s representation at 18.7% and 12%, respectively.
On the other hand, 54.8% of public enterprises still have no female board members. This percentage is 10.2% for non-banking financial companies, 4.2% for EGX-listed companies, and 3% for banks.