Women's access and perception of decent work: a case study on Egypt

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to assess the gender disparities in the workers' perception of whether “decent work” standards exist in their current job and workplace in the Egyptian context.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses quantitative data. A survey was utilised to assess workers' perceptions of decent work. The sample was selected based on age as the study aims to measure gender disparities in the perception among Generation Y and Z. Frequency table for each question and independent sample T-test were utilised in order to compare the variable means between females and males and whether any of those means are significantly different from each other.

Findings

The key findings of this research show that women in Egypt believe they have fewer opportunity to progress professionally and raise their salaries than males, particularly in male-dominated fields like engineering, construction and information technology. Furthermore, the women surveyed, particularly working mothers, emphasised that they struggle with their workload and working time more than men, affecting their work–life balance. However, there was no significant disparity between men and women in the other aspects of decent work examined in this article, which included social protection, health and safety, and meaningful compensation.

Originality/value

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first group of studies assessing the gender disparities in the workers' perception of whether “decent work” standards exist in the Egyptian workplace.