If you know what women want, you can rule! This quotation from Mel Gibson's film “What Women Want” summarises man's centuries-long endeavours to understand his better half. Women seek, as presumably all men do, better education, rewarding jobs and higher positions in organisational hierarchies. From a socioeconomic perspective, women worldwide have realised many of their dreams. But they want more. Egyptian women feel "less empowered", according to a recent survey by MasterCard. "Egypt's MasterCard Index of Women's Advancement score fell from 88.48 last year to 75.9 this year," Magdy Hassan, MasterCard's Vice President and Country Manager, told a press briefing in Cairo on Sunday. According to the survey, which was conducted in October and November, a significantly lower proportion of women perceive themselves in managerial positions – 63 women per 100 men in 2010 compared to 98 women per 100 men last year. "The index is comprised of four indicators. Two of them are objective factors that are based on source data from national statistics bureaus and show the ratio of female to male participation in the labour force and tertiary education," Hassan explained. "The other two indicators are subjective factors and are based on survey data, and measure the ratio of female to male respondent perceptions of whether they hold managerial positions at work and earn above median income," he said. "The resulting index figure calculated from these indicators shows how close or how far women in each market are achieving socioeconomic parity with men. "A score under 100 indicates gender inequality in favour of males, while a score above 100 indicates inequality in favour of females. A score of 100 indicates equality between the genders," he said. With the Index of Women's Advancement score at 75.9, there's still a long way to go for Egyptian women. But women in Egypt have made it to the top as they take 25.4 per cent of high-profile managerial positions, according to the country's Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS). Women represent 20.8 per cent of Egypt's diplomatic officers. The percentage in the US, for instance, stands at around 34 per cent, according to data from US Foreign Service. Around 50 per cent Egyptian press attachés are women, while there are 12 women out of 28 members of the country's Press Supreme Council, according to CAPMAS. Women employment stands at 22 per cent of Egypt's labour force of 23 million, according to CAPMAS. However, the main challenge facing working women in Egypt is post-marriage life. Preliminary analysis provides new evidence suggesting that compatibility between post-marriage life and work is one of the key determinants of women's decision to work in a particular sector, the World Bank has said in a recent report. Among those participating in the labour force, women face greater challenges than men in accessing employment opportunities. In most Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries, women experience significantly higher unemployment rates than men, according to the World Bank. "Between 1998 and 2006, the percentage of young Egyptian women possessing a university degree rose from six to 12. Strikingly, the female labour force participation rate in this age group remained near-stagnant, while their rate of unemployment increased from 19 to 27 per cent," the Bank said in its Women in the Workforce report. The MasterCard survey has found out that more women in Egypt consider themselves to be the financial decision makers in the household. "In Egypt, 47 per cent of women believe they hold the household's purse strings in 2010 compared to 40 per cent a year earlier. The female household financial decision maker in this country is typically aged between 31-45 years old (47 per cent of respondents) and 45-55 (35 per cent)," it said. "The proportion of women to men in terms of tertiary education enrollment rate (87.54 in 2009 to 87.51 in 2010) has slightly decreased. In addition, compared to last year, a lesser proportion of women to men now perceive themselves to be earning above median income – 124 women per 100 men this year against 139 women per 100 men in 2009," it said. As described by MasterCard's Hassan, the survey results provide compelling consumer insights into women's socioeconomic outlook. "In Egypt, female consumers (62) are slightly more confident about the next six months compared to their male counterparts (58.4). This is driven by optimism towards employment (50.3), the economy (57.6), regular income (78.3), the stock market (51.1) and quality of life (54.8)," it said. Egyptian women plan to maintain their levels of discretionary spend and saving over the coming six months. "In terms of her purchasing priorities, dining and entertainment (95%) is the top priority, followed by fashion and accessories 76% and white goods 60%," it added. In their book “Women Want More”, Michael J. Silverstein and Kate Sayre say that women want time, more understanding, more value and satisfaction from the products and services they buy. "More love, of course. More money? Not really. For most women, money is not the point," the US authors wrote. "Egyptian women spend more time than the global average on the Internet and watching television, and concurrently, they spend less time socialising. They prioritise satisfaction, peace and stability as most important in their lives; reducing stress and gaining recognition are less often priorities," Silverstein and Sayre wrote. Egyptian veteran writer Ahmed Ragab once said: "A woman would need four animals for satisfaction: a mink on her shoulders, a Jaguar car, a young man as strong as tiger for mating and an ass to spend!"
