PROJECT
Egypt: Findings from a National Adolescent Survey  

The Population Council’s program of research in Egypt aims to understand two important features of the transition to adulthood: exit from school and gender role socialization. Egyptian society is characterized by distinct roles for men and women; therefore research focuses on the gender aspects of adolescence as reflected in both behavioral and attitudinal differences between young men and women.

An analysis of detailed data on Egyptian preparatory schools (grades 6–8, the last three years of the eight years of basic schooling) together with data from a national survey of Egyptian adolescents was published in 2003. It explores the relationship between school quality and the likelihood of exiting from the school system either during preparatory school or before the completion of secondary school. The results confirm that school quality affects the likelihood of school exit. For both boys and girls, the elements of school quality that matter include traditional elements such as time available for learning and material resources, teacher quality, and some aspects of school and classroom dynamics, in particular treatment by teachers and teacher attitudes.

Furthermore, the schooling experience of boys and girls appears to differ in ways that are related to prevalent societal attitudes about boys and girls. Schools continue to place considerable importance on home economics for girls, as schooling is seen as providing preparation for the sharply differentiated but complementary roles of men and women in marriage and motherhood. Indeed, parents place such a high value on the schooling of their girls, despite low female labor force participation rates, that the proportion of girls privately tutored in preparatory schools exceeds the proportion of boys tutored. Furthermore, girls’ dropout rates appear to be unaffected by parents’ socioeconomic status, while boys whose parents are poorer or less educated are more likely to drop out than those whose parents are richer or better educated.

A second study, also published in 2003, based on the same national survey explores gender role attitudes among unmarried adolescents ages 16–19 years. The findings reflect strong gender differentiation. Girls and boys have divergent profiles of an ideal spouse that reflect traditional gender roles. However, girls are significantly less likely than boys to favor educational inequality between spouses. On the other hand, neither boys nor girls have particularly egalitarian gender role attitudes, although girls are significantly more likely to express less traditional attitudes.

Multivariate analyses indicate that attitudes do not vary consistently and significantly by conventional background factors. In particular, increased schooling does not challenge the expression of traditional attitudes for either sex or encourage wider horizons for girls. Unless economic opportunities expand considerably, it is likely that girls and boys will continue to see value in the traditional arrangements in which women offer men obedience in return for economic support.

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Location

Egypt

Population Council researchers

Sajeda Amin, Cynthia B. Lloyd, Barbara S. Mensch

Non-Council collaborators

Omaima El-Gibaly (Assiut University)

Sahar El-Tawila (Social Research Center, American University in Cairo and Cairo University)

Barbara L. Ibrahim

Donors

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Population Council

The Rockefeller Foundation

US Agency for International Development

Publications/Resources on this project

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See Also

• Egypt
• Transitions to Adulthood/Schooling
• Gender and Family Dynamics

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