Efforts toward closing the gender gap: Lessons from two decades of reform in Egypt

In many countries, women get left behind in the labor market. With one of the largest gender gaps in labor force participation in the world and a sweeping new labor law enacted in 2025, Egypt is a good place to analyze what its reforms have set in motion and the lessons other countries can draw from its trajectory. In Egypt, 20 percent of women participate in the labor force, compared to 74 percent of men. Closing that gap could do more than advance women's rights: World Bank estimates suggest it could increase Egypt's GDP per capita by 41 percent by 2050, and by as much as 56 percent in the long run. A two-decade reform effort, in one law Egypt has emerged as one of the world's most active reformers according to the Women, Business and the Law (WBL) 2026 report, reflected in a 10-point score increase. That score is the product of more than two decades of iterative efforts that resulted in the Labor Law of 2025, the first comprehensive overhaul of Egypt's labor code in more than 20 years. The law removed restrictions on women's night work, mandated equal pay for work of equal value, extended paid maternity leave from 90 to 120 days, introduced (limited) paid paternity leave, strengthened protections against dismissal during maternity, and enabled flexible work arrangements. The Labor Law did not stand alone. Earlier financial sector reforms introduced protections against gender-based discrimination in access to financial services, strengthened the use of sex-disaggregated data, and improved protection from gender-based violence through a one-stop center for survivors and transport safety protocols. IFC has worked with Egypt’s private sector to support women entrepreneurs and workplace equality. Four lessons from Egypt’s trajectory for other countries: • Design reforms around evidence and maintain a dialogue. WBL data helped identify Egypt's priority areas and anchored discussions with policymakers across two decades. Equally important was the sustained dialogue that followed. A pattern seen across reforming economies is that data can catalyze reform, but only when embedded in ongoing engagement. • Sequence reforms strategically: start where movement is possible. Not all reforms are equally easy to advance. Labor market regulations are often more immediately actionable than rules embedded in personal status law or inheritance regimes, which are tied to deeply rooted social norms and require broader societal dialogue.Egypt's scores reflect this. The 2025 reforms brought meaningful progress in legal frameworks scores for Pay (81.25), Parenthood (64.25), and Work (50). Marriage (0), Mobility (25), and Assets (25) remain lowest. Early gains build momentum and create space for tackling harder reforms over time. The implication is not to avoid difficult reforms, but to sequence them within a longer-term agenda. • Pair legal change with financing instruments that lock in results. Legal change is more likely to translate into outcomes when anchored in a results framework. Egypt's experience with Development Policy Financing illustrates this: policy actions anchored commitments to financial inclusion with targets to expand women's access to non-bank financial services supported by sex-disaggregated monitoring, access to protection services, and improved transport safety. Tying disbursements to measurable targets means reforms are not only enacted but tracked. • Build implementation systems from day one. Implementation cannot be an afterthought. Egypt's WBL 2026 supportive frameworks data show where the gaps remain. Paternity leave stands at one day, with no policy incentives to encourage fathers to take it. Labor Law care provision obligations need supplementing with measures to ease the financial burden for employers and expand quality childcare. New flexible work provisions need implementing guidance before they can be used with confidence. Asset ownership, entrepreneurship, and employment can be promoted by strengthening social insurance, simplifying regulations, and expanding financial services and products. And while the National Strategy for the Empowerment of Egyptian Women 2030 sets clear targets for women's labor market access, the institutional architecture to track progress is not yet in place. What comes next, and what others can take from it These lessons are not unique to Egypt. Closing gender gaps in labor markets requires a combination of legal change, institutional and budgetary support, and sustained political commitment. Egypt’s trajectory shows that meaningful change at speed is possible. The next phase will determine whether that change delivers results at scale in women's economic participation. A note from the authors The findings in this blog are based on WBL 2026 data, which measures the legal and policy frameworks affecting women's economic participation as of a specific point in time. A higher or improving score reflects progress in legal provisions — it does not indicate that those laws are being enforced, or that women's lives have improved in practice. The new WBL 2026 Enforcement Perceptions score aims to capture precisely this gap: for Egypt, it stands at 42 out of 100, below the global average of 53, signaling women’s equal opportunity laws are enforced at less than half of their potential. We are not making a broader claim about the situation of women in Egypt. Many of the barriers women face — in Egypt and elsewhere — are not captured by any legal index. Where those gaps are visible in the data, we point to them; but readers should keep this limitation in mind when interpreting any score-based findings in this blog.