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Male and female (youth and total) labour force participation rates, Arab countries (latest available year)
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

Male (24-15) Female (24-15) Male (64-15) Female (64-15)

Source: ILO Stat database. Available at https://www.ilo.int/ilostat (accessed on 14 August 2018).
Note: Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, and the Sudan data is for population aged 15+; no youth data is available for Jordan.

• Firstly, they should contribute post-secondary education are more context should be kept in mind
to economic growth by likely to be unemployed than women when discussing the enhancement
‘expanding the cake of wealth’ who do not have a post-secondary of female entrepreneurship as
through new value-added education’. 1 many factors are common for
and wealth creation bringing
This is only an apparent paradox both employment in general and
about much-needed economic
as women’s education (from entrepreneurship in specific.
diversification away from the
school age up to the choice of
dominant natural resources and To read the report in full, visit:
tertiary education specialities), as
monopolies rents.
well as the choice of ‘appropriate’ https://www.unescwa.org/publications/
• Secondly, they should employment type, is strongly innovation-entrepreneurship-
contribute to women and youth gendered in most Arab countries opportunities-challenges-arab-youth-
economic empowerment due to social values. women.
within this enlarged wealth In addition, inadequate policy and 1. Momani 2016
creation by providing better regulatory factors add limitations
entrepreneurship opportunities. to female employment even if 2. As discussed in ESCWA, 2012;
For this to happen, a broad they hold advanced degrees ; this ESCWA, 2017d; and Momani, 2016.
2
spectrum of issues needs to be
addressed.
This study aims to shed some
light on the most important
among those issues and
suggest recommendations for
Arab policymakers and other
stakeholders to consider.
Gender differences in youth
unemployment still prevail in
many Arab countries sometimes
significantly. This happens despite
undeniable improvements in
women’s educational attainment
in most Arab countries where, in
some, females outnumber males
in tertiary education. However, it
appears that ‘Arab women with

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