Trends and Patterns of Women’s Entrepreneurship in Egypt

This paper conducts a detailed analysis of the trends and patterns of women’s role in household non-agricultural enterprises in Egypt. The paper uses the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey (ELMPS) waves of 1998, 2006, 2012 and 2018. First, the paper examines whether households have enterprises and how this varies across female and male-headed households over time. Second, it investigates whether men and women own enterprises and how this differs by their characteristics. Third, it investigates the characteristics of women-owned enterprises vis-à-vis men. Finally, it examines the gendered patterns of participation in enterprises. The findings demonstrate that women are less likely to engage in or own non-agricultural enterprises than men. Although the trend in participation in enterprises has been declining for men, it has been flat for women. Women-owned enterprises are more likely to be informal, have less capital, and be home-based.