Reem Leila reviews progress in the battle to empower women Women in Egypt have long struggled to reach positions of leadership. They face different challenges than their male counterparts. Egypt's future female leaders require knowledge and skill to become active players in the country's development. Despite constitutional and legal guarantees of empowering Egyptian women, who represent 49 per cent of the country's population, has a long way to go. Women are vastly underrepresented in the ownership and/or management of private sector firms and in senior public sector positions. Farkhonda Hassan, secretary-general of the National Council for Women (NCW), points out that as far as government employment is concerned, women are concentrated in social service ministries. Yet while they constitute 70 per cent of the labour force of the Ministry of Health and Population only 15 per cent of mid-level and senior management positions are held by women. Similar discrepancies are found in the Ministry of International Cooperation, where women account for 46 per cent of the total number of employees, and the Ministry for Economic Development, where they account for 47 per cent. In contrast, only eight per cent of the Ministry of Military Production and the Ministry of State for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs' employees are women. The situation is better at the Ministry of Justice. Egypt has 150 women judges. "Research confirms that very few women are empowered in leadership positions. The Egyptian cabinet includes only two women and there has never been a female prime minister, vice-president or president of the republic though nothing in the constitution or law prevents this," says Hassan. Though Egypt in the past year has seen the appointment of the first female omda and maazoun (religious registrar) the NCW is still working towards the appointment of the first female governor. Despite the figures Hassan believes that women are no longer marginalised players. They must be allowed to make a difference at all levels, from grassroots family and community initiatives through to regional, national, and international decision-making. "Accordingly," says Hassan, "the NCW engages across a broad spectrum of interests. The council does not have any direct interests of its own other than to see women in their right position, enjoying the stability and prosperity males enjoy." "The NCW has succeeded in initiating the establishment of equal opportunity units in most ministries to look at issues of gender equality in recruitment, promotion and training. Though these units lack adequate funds and the authority to implement decisions they are still supporting women." The council is also preparing a comprehensive database of women in managerial positions in order to better target its activities. Hoda Rashad, coordinator of the council's Education, Training and Scientific Research Committee, believes women have made enormous gains during recent years. Women can never be leaders as long as they lack education or awareness of their legal, political and economic rights. The NCW, says Rashad, is therefore prioritising the eradication of illiteracy. The council, in cooperation with the Social Research Studies Unit of the American University in Cairo, has initiated a pilot project that takes a new approach to the problem. A database covering 350,000 families in the governorate of Fayoum has been set up listing the names of illiterate family members. This data base provides detailed information on gender, age and enrolment and drop out rates in literacy classes at the village level. It also includes details of graduates who do not work in order to recruit or involve them as service providers in the literacy classes. "The experimental project was also applied in Qalioubiya governorate and is soon expected to cover all governorates," says Rashad. The issue of women's empowerment has been identified as a major development challenge facing Egypt. Gender equality will be achieved only when women are able to participate fully in the democratic process. Accordingly, the council, in collaboration with UN Development Program (UNDP), established the Women's Legal Rights Project early last year. Information and Communications Technology Development in the Arab Region (ICTDAR), a regional, European Union- funded project, covers Egypt, Lebanon and Tunisia and aims to provide a service allowing users to retrieve legal information electronically through a database. The information is presented simply, using easy to understand language in a question-answer format. It is offered on CD-ROMs, videotapes and on the Internet. Councillor Hassan Badrawi, coordinator of the NCW's Legislative Committee, says the purpose is to provide information and answers to women's queries on alimony, divorce and child custody, with the ultimate goal of simplifying litigation procedures. Access to this service is provided in women's centres and women's clubs in various ministries throughout the governorates, as well as through NGOs. Training sessions have been organised to train the staff of women's organisations. Public awareness of the need to enhance the role of women is growing. Momentum is no longer the result of a knee-jerk reaction to international pressure for greater gender equality but rather originates from a recognition of the dynamic role women can play in economic development. The NCW's 2007-2012 national development plan for the advancement of women adopts a holistic approach, using a scientific methodology, and includes participatory planning and decentralisation in addition to on-the- job capacity building of partners from national agencies responsible for planning at all levels. The planning process was based on an assessment of women's status and the identification of their real needs, from the village to the governorate level. "Intensive meetings were held between the project team, directors of planning in the governorates and Ministry of Planning experts. During these meetings the draft plans were discussed, finalised and adopted by the governorates," says Mahmoud Sherif, coordinator of the Governorates Committee. A unified framework was agreed and adopted under which each governorate plan outlines programmes and projects, providing descriptions, project objectives, principal and ancillary activities of projects, allocations, sources of financing, the implementing body and the time frame for implementation. The governorates' plans, continues Sherif, cover fields ranging from education, health and poverty combating programmes to raising women's awareness of their rights and economic empowerment schemes. "The plans also include forms for following up on the implementation of projects according to the set timetable as well as a set of indicators to identify the outputs, results and impact of projects versus their resources and inputs." The governorates' plans were submitted to the ministries of Economic Development and Local Development as well as other concerned ministries to integrate them into the Five-year National Socio-Economic Development Plan.
