The Maghreb Gender Paradox: Educated and Healthy, Yet Economically Excluded

The World Bank’s 2025 background note, developed with support from the Maghreb Faculty for Social and Economic Studies and CREDIF (Centre de Recherches, d’Etudes de Documentation et d’Information sur la Femme), explores the multidimensional progress and persistent barriers facing women in Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia. The findings paint a compelling portrait of contrast: while girls consistently outperform boys in educational attainment and show better health outcomes across most indices, women still face widespread exclusion from formal labor markets, political institutions, and asset ownership. Even with decades of investment in girls’ education, women’s lived experience in adulthood is defined by inequality, vulnerability, and underutilization of their skills.

Girls across the Maghreb now dominate secondary and tertiary education enrollment. In STEM fields, a global gender challenge, women outnumber men in Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco, far surpassing the world average. Health indicators also favor women: life expectancy is rising, maternal mortality is dropping, and young girls exhibit better survival and nutritional outcomes. Tunisia, in particular, leads in several key health metrics. Yet, these achievements in human capital accumulation do not translate to equality in adulthood. The Human Capital Index (HCI) scores are higher for girls than boys in most Maghreb countries, but the Human Development Index (HDI) reveals wide gender gaps, driven largely by income inequality and low female labor force participation. In rural and conflict-affected areas like Libya, adolescent girls face disproportionate barriers, including school dropouts, child marriage, and gender-based violence, all of which further suppress their future prospects.

Stalled Progress in Women’s Employment

Despite their educational credentials, Maghrebian women are overwhelmingly absent from formal labor markets. Female labor force participation (FLFP) remains dismally low: just 17 percent in Algeria, 20 percent in Morocco, 27 percent in Tunisia, and a slightly better 35 percent in Libya. These figures place the region far below the global average of 49 percent. Even where women are present, they tend to work in low-paid, informal, and seasonal sectors. Agriculture employs large numbers of women in Morocco, but these are often unprotected, underpaid, and physically demanding jobs. In Tunisia, women account for a higher share of industrial employment, but are concentrated in low-skill textile roles.

COVID-19 widened this employment gap further. Enterprise surveys in Morocco revealed a 4 percent decline in women’s full-time employment share since 2019. Informal workers, predominantly women, were the hardest hit, lacking safety nets and legal protections. Domestic workers, agricultural laborers, and small traders lost income without recourse. Additionally, women assumed a greater share of unpaid care work during school closures and lockdowns, further restricting their ability to re-enter the workforce. A broader crisis lies in the mismatch between education and employment opportunities. Although women graduate in high numbers from technical and scientific fields, labor markets remain ill-equipped to absorb them, especially in emerging sectors like renewable energy, digital services, and green technologies.

Digital Divide and Financial Exclusion

The digital economy offers hope for women’s economic empowerment through flexible work, online businesses, and access to global markets. However, Maghrebian women are largely excluded from this transformation. The region suffers from one of the world’s widest digital gender gaps. Tunisia performs relatively well, but Morocco and Libya lag, with fewer women accessing the internet, digital payment systems, or online education. Despite strong representation in STEM education, women are underrepresented in digital sector jobs, and few women use mobile money or e-wallets.

Financial exclusion compounds these challenges. Women across the region have less access to credit, land, and banking services. In Libya, although 60 percent of women hold bank accounts, their ability to borrow is minimal; only one woman borrows for every four men. In Morocco, access to credit has improved, but barriers to asset ownership persist. Female landholders account for just 4.4 percent in Morocco and 6.4 percent in Tunisia. Inheritance laws, rooted in patriarchal interpretations of Shari’a, further disadvantage women, often resulting in their exclusion from family property or assignment of low-quality land. Even when women legally own property, male relatives often control it in practice.

Limited Voice in Politics and Public Life

Tunisia stands out as the only country in the region with meaningful female political representation. Its Political Parity Score (PPS) surpasses the global average, and women hold nearly half of the seats in local legislatures. It is also the only Maghreb country to have had a female head of government. However, even in Tunisia, questions persist about the substantive nature of women’s political roles. Evidence shows that many women in politics gain entry through family ties rather than party merit, and struggle to influence key policy decisions.

Elsewhere, the picture is bleaker. Algeria, Morocco, and Libya all fall below global averages in terms of female representation in parliament and cabinet positions. Patriarchal norms, campaign financing disparities, and discriminatory electoral practices continue to restrict women’s political agency. Survey data reveal that more than half of Maghreb respondents still believe men make better political leaders. While younger women are beginning to challenge these norms, young men remain firmly anchored in traditional beliefs, reinforcing a gendered status quo across generations.

Gender-Based Violence: A Deep-Rooted Crisis

Perhaps the most disturbing trend is the widespread normalization of gender-based violence (GBV). Across the Maghreb, women are exposed to violence in both private and public spheres. In Tunisia, 25 percent of women aged 15–49 have experienced intimate partner violence. In Morocco, 10 percent have faced sexual or physical violence in the past year. Libya, wracked by conflict, reports rampant sexual violence, especially against migrant and displaced women. Cultural norms often discourage women from reporting abuse, and legal systems remain ill-equipped to offer justice.

Public opinion frequently condones violence: over 56 percent of Moroccan respondents believe it is justifiable for a man to beat his wife under certain conditions. Political women are not spared, cases of harassment, defamation, and even abduction have been documented, including the 2019 kidnapping of a Libyan MP following her public criticism of state violence. Tunisia has taken legal steps to criminalize political GBV, but enforcement is inconsistent, and cultural resistance remains high.

The report makes clear that while significant achievements have been made in women’s education and health, they have yet to yield equality in economic empowerment, leadership, and safety. For the Maghreb to fully unlock its development potential, it must dismantle systemic barriers and confront deep-seated social norms that restrict women’s roles in both private and public life. With reforms tailored to each country’s realities, and led by inclusive, accountable institutions, the region can transform its vast reservoir of female talent into a force for prosperity and progress.