Gender and Women's Empowerment

Source: https://www.aucegypt.edu/research/social-research-center/research-themes/gender-and-women-empowerment Parent: https://www.aucegypt.edu/research/social-research-center/research-themes

The overall purpose of this research is to support effective policies in Arab countries to realize gender equity and to extend social citizenship, voice, rights and opportunities to women with a particular emphasis on the synergistic relation between gender inequities and poverty. The gender gap persists in most Arab countries and is a major factor in their low human development indices. SRC has made operational its significant experience and extensive regional network of scholars, activists and gender specialists.

Illustrative Examples

The SRC has contributed to both gender research and policy in Egypt.  Projects related to gender have focused on reproductive health and population, women and work, social protection and education/literacy.  Since its early work on family planning which began over five decades ago, the center has activity pursued an understanding of gender dynamics and justice as the heart of development thinking in Egypt.  This work on gender was undertaken with many partners including policy makers.

Few relevant examples

• Literary research in partnership with General Authority for Illiteracy Eradication and with support from National Council for Women (NCW) contributing to a positive impact on literacy in Fayoum governorate, formulation of a new illiteracy eradication strategy, adoption of new legislations, development of training modules, as well as introduction of a dynamic illiteracy information system.
• Women economic participation research in partnership with Ministry of Manpower and support from UN women contributing to a positive impact on women economic participations in a community intervention in Sharquia governorate, development of a national economic participation strategy, establishing an equal opportunity unit in Ministry of Manpower, supporting the implementation of gender equity seal, training of trainers on gender mainstreaming.
• Work on masculanity and male involvement in partnership with NCW and support from UN women leading to policy recommendations and launching of a new national initiative by NCW “Because I am a Man” guided by new knowledge from research.
• Two recent efforts of SRC include “ Pathways of Women’s Empowerment (2006-2012)” and “Women’s Access to Assets and protection (2017)”. In the first activity, SRC was engaged in a 6 year collaboration with academic centres in the UK, Bangladesh, Brazil and Ghana to work on pathways of women’s empowerment which was funded by DfID and co-managed by the SRC. This project included research on women’s legal challenges and Khol’, women’s labour force participation, gendered social protection, feminist story-telling and political participation. Collaborations at the regional level in Lebanon, Sudan and Palestine were fostered by the pathways program which supported a number of workshops, panels, conferences and publications with regional partners. The outputs from this collaboration include peer-reviewed articles, books, films, teaching resources, policy briefs and reports.\ The second activity was supported by UNWomen and was conducted on behalf of the National Council for Women. The project investigated the legal and economic rights availed to marginalised women in three governorates (Minya, Beheira and Giza) in terms of access to inheritance and to state social insurance and pensions for agricultural workers. The research findings were discussed with legal scholars and the final report was used by NCW legal partners in developing revisions to inheritance protections for women.
• Other contributions of SRC included: Gendering social protection policies in Egypt; Contributing to a gender worker module in The World Band Investment Climate Assessment Survey, Co-coordinating and contributing to a UN women report on progress of Arab women.  A commitment to gender justice and gender equality in training workshops and mainstreaming gender in all SRC programs and projects.

Examples of SRC projects

Safe Cities Free of Violence Against Women and Girls:

Safe Cities is a global program to produce and ultimately offer a model (or models) for preventing and reducing sexual violence against women and girls in public spaces in cities, enabling them to move more freely and safely, and to increase their ability to exercise their right to enjoy such space.

Salheya Initiative for Women's Economic Empowerment:

This project aimed at enhancing the understanding of the situation of women in new Salheya area regarding job market, economic resources and available opportunities to link job seekers with opportunities. The project worked on enhancing the vocational skills for 1,000 women to match opportunities in the labor market in the New Salheya area. Learn more about Salheya Initiative.

Economic Participation of Women Website:

This site aims to facilitate the flow of information on economic participation of women among researchers, policymakers and practitioners. The site acts as a portal providing recent publications, articles as well as information regarding the participation of women. Visit Economic Participation of Women website.

Click here for a list of projects carried out (2002-2017) by SRC on gender and women's empowerment

Click here for or a list of some publications and outcomes of SRC Gender related projects.

List of Grants

SRC Ongoing Grants from 1 September, 2019

SRC Concluded Projects from  1 September, 2014 to  31 August, 2019