Women’s empowerment in Egypt: evidence and potential sources

Sahar El-Sheneity, American University in Cairo

In this paper, a framework for studying women’s empowerment (on the individual level) that is adaptable to the Egyptian context is proposed; drawing from but also adding to the international scholarship on empowerment. First, both direct and indirect indicators of empowerment are analyzed using a pilot sample of 2372 ever-married Egyptian women who were surveyed by the Social Research Center (SRC) of the American University in Cairo (AUC) in the summer of 2007. The proposed framework is used in the analysis. Direct indicators are those indicators that could be used as evidence of empowerment while the indirect ones represent potential sources of empowerment. We also study the relation between such direct and indirect indicators in the quest for knowledge on how potential sources have actually translated into evidence of empowerment for the sampled women. This analysis would help in guiding future policies targeting women’s empowerment by singling out the most effective potential sources of empowerment.