Report of the New Woman Foundation about The state of Egyptian female workers in the industrial sector

The Egyptian government’s adoption of the privatization and structural adjustment policies under the pressure of the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) since 1993 has caused greater impoverishment, as a result of the government’s gradual phasing out of providing basic social services. This has adversely affected women, especially in the areas of education, health care, employment, water and housing, with a marked inflation, reflected in an increase of 32.5% year-on-year on food prices1 . Women also suffer from discrimination in employment, as they do not enjoy equal rights, especially when it comes to female workers as well as women working in the informal sector who are left outside the scope of legal protection. Furthermore, women are exposed to several forms of violence within their working environment, such as discrimination, sexual harassment, rape, etc.. The present report is based on the findings of two documents produced by NWF; the first is considered to be the first research of this type conducted about female workers under the impact of structural adjustment policies and included a sample of 600 female workers. The report was published by the end of 2007 together with an annexed booklet that included the proceedings of two workshops conducted in 2007 with women workers. The second is a report on sexual harassment in industrial zones prepared in 2009 that included 40 case studies.

Read the Full report Click Here