The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) expresses its deep concern over Egypt’s continued decline in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2025. Egypt ranked 139th out of 148 countries, placing it among the ten worst countries globally in terms of gender parity.

This decline reflects a continued decrease in the gender gap closure rate—that is, the efforts and actions taken by the state to reduce gender disparities—highlighting a persistent crisis in women’s rights in Egypt. While the state continues to claim its commitment to women’s empowerment and even celebrates so-called “achievements,” all statistical indicators, reports by Egypt’s international partner institutions, and women’s lived reality point instead to a worsening crisis year after year.

Egypt’s slide to 139th place in 2025 follows a drop to 135th rank in the previous year out of 146 countries. Egypt’s gender gap closure rate, already low, has further declined to 62.5%. This stands in contrast to the global average of 68.8%, which saw its best improvement since 2020, increasing by 0.3 percentage points compared to 2024. These figures illustrate a widening gap between Egypt’s trajectory and the slow but steady global progress—particularly regarding women’s economic and political participation.

Even when compared to countries in the same region, continent, or income group, Egypt’s performance remains poor. It ranks 11th out of 14 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, and 34th out of 41 African countries covered in the report. Among lower-middle-income economies—Egypt’s peer group—it ranked 38th out of 40, performing better only than Guinea and Pakistan.

This means that whether we compare Egypt to countries with similar economies, cultures, or geographic regions, it consistently ranks among the worst in closing the gender gap across all indicators. This stands in stark contradiction to the Egyptian state’s narrative of its accomplishments in women’s rights over the past decade, and its celebration of strategies such as the “National Strategy for the Empowerment of Egyptian Women 2030” or the Egyptian Family Development Program. Any improvements in select indicators have failed to translate into a broader, meaningful enhancement of women’s overall status.

A closer look at the report’s four key pillars and Egypt’s standing in each reveals a clearer picture:

A. Economic Participation and Opportunity

This pillar continues to pose the greatest challenge for Egyptian women. In the latest report, Egypt ranks 140th out of 148 in terms of women’s access to economic participation and opportunity. The country has closed only 40% of the gap in this area, compared to a global average of 61%.

Women's labour force participation stood at 15.9%, compared to 74.2% for men. Women’s estimated income was less than one-quarter of men’s, and they held just 7.2% of senior roles. Egypt received one of its worst rankings—145th out of 148—in women’s expected earned income.

Despite this poor performance, the results are not surprising. They reflect the cumulative impact of years of economic policies that have marginalised women in Egypt—indeed, policies that have largely ignored the interests of the majority of Egyptians regardless of gender. A brief look at Egypt’s public policies related to women and employment over the past year highlights the depth of the crisis: from the imposition of unconstitutional and unlawful requirements obliging most low-income women to obtain prior travel authorisation (a policy the EIPR has recently challenged before the State Council), to the ongoing crisis of hiring female teachers who passed the “30,000 Teachers” recruitment exams. Many women were excluded on the basis of gender-discriminatory criteria, including pregnancy or recent childbirth, alongside other biased standards also applied to male candidates, such as weight, fitness, or disability. This case has remained in court for over a year, with EIPR representing dozens of women who were excluded. Meanwhile, the state continues to institutionalise discrimination, embedding military academy training as part of teacher hiring requirements.

With regard to income indicators, consider the example of workers at the Samannoud Textiles Factory, who, last year, attempted to claim their legally guaranteed right to a minimum wage—so far, unsuccessfully.

With the recent passage of the new Labour Law, the future appears unlikely to bring improvements. Continued restrictions on the right to strike, curbs on labour organising, and the expansion of “labor market flexibility” all mean that the small percentage of women who do enter the labor force will remain vulnerable to exploitation by employers.

B. Educational Attainment

Egypt ranked 111th out of 148 economies on the educational attainment pillar. Although this is a low position, it remains Egypt’s second-best sub-ranking. The gender gap in education is reported at 97.3% closed. Despite this relatively better status of women in education compared to other areas, a clear disconnect remains between education and meaningful economic opportunity. This was clearly documented in the 2024 report “The Crisis of Women’s and Girls’ Rights in Egypt (2019–2024),” co-issued by EIPR as part of a coalition of Egyptian feminist and human rights organisations, which found that education alone does not guarantee women’s economic participation.

C. Health and Survival

This is Egypt’s best-performing sub-index, where it ranks 78th out of 148. Despite a longer average life expectancy for women (73.9 years compared to 70.8 for men), this indicator does not account for quality of life, overall health, or the availability and quality of sexual and reproductive rights and health for women.

D. Political Empowerment

This pillar measures women’s participation in ministerial and parliamentary roles and other leadership positions. Egypt ranked 101st out of 148 countries, with a gender gap closure rate of 15.9%, compared to the global average of 22.9%. The best-performing indicator in this domain was women’s share of parliamentary seats, at 27.7%.

EIPR views this performance as further evidence that official narratives and government-led initiatives do not reflect the real conditions of women in Egypt. These outcomes are a direct result of years of performative policies that have failed to confront deeply rooted and institutional forms of discrimination against women and girls. Education has not translated into real opportunities; women’s access to decent employment remains abysmal; institutional discrimination is evident in Interior Ministry policies restricting women’s travel freedom; and blatant gender bias is visible in teacher recruitment. Moreover, the absence of transparent wage frameworks and the failure to implement minimum wage decisions leave women especially vulnerable.

This international report underscores once again the urgent need to change the state’s approach to women’s rights in Egypt. It affirms EIPR’s longstanding call for a comprehensive reform to redesign national policies based on equity. Reversing this deterioration requires urgent political and legislative action to restructure Egypt’s socio-economic system to place women at its centre—not its margins—and to treat Egyptian women as full citizens with full rights.

Until such a transformation is achieved, the following urgent recommendations must be adopted to address the current crises:

• Comprehensive reform of the labour and employment system to ensure full gender equality, including a review of all policies and laws that permit or tolerate gender-based discrimination, and the elimination of arbitrary restrictions such as prior travel authorisation requirements or exclusion from jobs based on pregnancy, weight, fitness, or disability.

• The enactment of a comprehensive equality and anti-discrimination law to confront institutional discrimination—including against women in the workplace—and ensure equal opportunity in recruitment and promotion. The law should provide clear accountability mechanisms and be based on the minimum standards and guiding principles proposed by EIPR.

• Full implementation of minimum wage decisions across all sectors.