Abhatoo - Centre Nationale de Documentation

Determinants of women’s employment are studied using data for 65,000 women living in 103 districts of six Arab countries. At the household level, socio-economic factors, care duties, and values are most important, and at the district-level economic development and gender equality. Women’s education clearly takes in a key position. Interaction analysis shows the effect of education to be stronger for women with less care duties and women married to higher educated partners. This last finding suggests a ceiling effect of
husband’s socio-economic status on wives’ achievements. Returns to education are also higher in more traditional districts. Our results stress the importance of education as a major road towards women’s empowerment in these countries.