Unseen Barriers: What’s Really Keeping Women Out of the Workforce in MENA

A new policy brief by the World Bank, developed in collaboration with the Mind, Behavior, and Development Unit (eMBeD) and the Poverty and Equity Global Practice, delivers a sobering insight into the gender gap in labor markets across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Despite years of progress in education and declining fertility rates, female labor force participation (FLFP) in the region remains dismally low, just 20%, compared to a global average of 55%. The report, titled “Breaking Barriers: Understanding and Addressing Social Norm Constraints to Women’s Work in the Middle East and North Africa,” argues that entrenched social norms, not economic opportunity or policy limitations alone, are at the heart of the problem. Drawing on extensive surveys conducted in Egypt, Iraq (including Kurdistan), Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia, it lays bare the tension between what people believe individually and what they think others believe.

Interestingly, while general support for women’s work is high in these countries, this support is context-sensitive and declines significantly when it involves working late, interacting with men, or relying on childcare outside the home. In Morocco, for example, support for a woman working while her child is under the age of three drops to a mere 21%, even among respondents who otherwise say they support women’s employment. The contradiction is not just between action and belief, but between perception and reality. Most respondents underestimate how supportive their communities are, revealing widespread “pluralistic ignorance” that stifles progress.

Gatekeepers at Home: Men’s Outsized Influence

A defining theme of the report is the role of men as gatekeepers of social norms. Across all countries studied, male respondents, especially husbands and fathers, consistently expressed more restrictive views than women regarding when and how women should work. The belief that men should be sole providers remains dominant in Morocco, Egypt, and Tunisia, where over 80% of respondents believe the man must financially support the family. This view devalues women’s employment as supplementary or optional, a perception that discourages women from working unless financial necessity demands it.

These attitudes often manifest through household decision-making dynamics. In many households, men are not only the main economic contributors but also the final arbiters of whether a woman can work. Strikingly, women tend to overestimate how supportive their male family members are of their employment. These misperceptions frequently align more with women’s own beliefs than with their husbands’ actual views, creating friction when women seek work opportunities and encounter unexpected resistance at home.

Fear and Silence: The Role of Harassment and Reputational Risk

The report identifies harassment and reputational risk as additional, often overlooked barriers to women’s economic engagement. In countries like Egypt and Morocco, the fear of harassment, whether during commutes or in the workplace, is widespread and plays a powerful deterrent role, even when actual reports of such incidents are rare. This discrepancy suggests underreporting and social stigma, which leads to a distorted understanding of the real risks women face.

Sanctions for violating social norms, such as working outside the home, especially in mixed-gender environments, are generally low, often limited to gossip rather than outright ostracism or penalties. In Tunisia, for example, while half of the respondents expect the community to disapprove of a woman returning home after 5 p.m., only 15% believe this would lead to any tangible social punishment. Nevertheless, the anticipation of negative reactions, especially gossip or reputational harm, can still exert enough pressure to prevent women from working altogether.

What Norms Matter: Evidence From Behavior

Perhaps one of the most striking contributions of the report is its analysis of what beliefs and perceptions are actually associated with women’s employment. Using regression analysis across countries, it finds that personal beliefs and perceptions of what others do (community actions) are stronger predictors of women’s work status than what people think others believe (community expectations). In Jordan, for example, supportive personal beliefs are associated with a 37% higher chance that a woman is working. In Morocco and Tunisia, the perception that other women in the community work, rather than believing that others approve, has a statistically significant effect.

To test whether women’s employment decisions are norm-driven, the researchers used vignettes: hypothetical stories in which a woman’s community varies in how many women work and how accepting the community is. In Egypt and Morocco, responses indicated that both perceived behavior and perceived attitudes shaped people’s views on whether the woman in the story should accept a job. However, in Tunisia, these norms appeared to matter less, suggesting that in some contexts, structural barriers like transportation or child care may be more decisive.

Unlocking Potential: What Can Be Done

The report closes with a robust list of recommendations to dismantle both social and structural barriers. These include correcting widespread misperceptions about community support through media and social campaigns, promoting female role models, engaging men and boys in norm change from an early age, and reframing formal childcare as a benefit for children, not just a convenience for mothers. In Jordan, a public awareness campaign on childcare reached 13 million people and helped shift the dialogue. Programs in Lebanon that portrayed men, husbands, fathers, and employers as allies in supporting women’s careers successfully changed perceptions among both genders.

Other recommended reforms include strengthening anti-harassment laws, improving safe transport options, and introducing more flexible work arrangements. These structural interventions, while necessary, are unlikely to achieve lasting change unless accompanied by targeted efforts to shift underlying norms. Encouragingly, in countries like Morocco and Tunisia, public opinion appears close to a tipping point. Over 50% of respondents already support women working after marriage, signaling that broader change is not only possible but perhaps imminent, if acted upon decisively.