Research center underscores figures on women in Egypt

CAIRO – 11 April 2021: The Egyptian Center for Strategic Studies (ECSS) published Sunday data on women empowerment in Egypt focusing on political, economic, and social aspects as well as security.

The data are derived from the Global Gender Gap Report 2020 whereas Egypt ranked 134 out of 153 countries measured going up by one place compared to 2018. The progress is due to bridging 62.9 percent of the gap between genders. As such, it ranked eighth in the Middle East and North Africa.

Egypt has 48.7 million women. It ranks 102nd in terms of education among women; 103rd in women political empowerment; 140th in women economic empowerment; and, 85th in women health.  

According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), the drop in unemployed females recorded 16.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared to 22.7 percent in the same period in 2019.

Women compose 24 percent of the Cabinet as there are 8 female ministers out of 33. As for the House of Representatives, women are allocated by the constitution a minimum of 162 seats (28.5%) out of 568 seats. The constitution also allocates women a minimum of 10 percent of the 300 seats in the Senate.

In March, Member of the Executive Committee of the Presidential Initiative for Women Health Loay Qassem stated that 12 million women were screened in 18 months for breast cancer, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity.

The official pointed out that 3,000 healthcare units across the country offer screening for breast cancer. He added that the initiative has turned into a permanent program that aims for the preservation of women health.

It is noted that the initiative was part of 100 Million Healthy Lives Campaign that screened Egyptians for hepatitis C, and chronic diseases.

Egypt’s initiative was launched in October 2018 under the auspices of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and ended in April 2019 after screening more than 45 million citizens. The Ministry of Health and Population vowed to completely eliminate the disease from Egypt in 2022.