“a Female Precariat? the Middle East and North Africa in Comparative Perspective”

The Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) is not usually included in global studies of development, globalization, or changing class structures. A decade ago, the present author asked: What difference has the neoliberal policy shift made for women in the labor force? The answer was that although women’s labor market shares had not increased significantly, precarious and irregular forms of work were on the rise.  MENA women have the lowest labor force participation rates of any region; most of the labor force consists of educated women in the professions; working class women in particular are “missing” from labor force statistics; in many countries a not-negligible part of the small female labor force is classified as “unpaid family labor”; and the highest unemployment rates are female. The paper examines the various dimensions of the “female precariat” in MENA – highlighting variations across oil, non-oil, and mixed economies – and ends with policies for women’s economic citizenship.