When there is no respect at work : job quality issues for women in Egypt’s private sector

The paper argues that women in Egypt face job quality issues that discourage them from continuing to work or even from entering the labor market. It provides an ethnographic account of the job quality of poor young females in the private sector in Egypt. The paper highlights young women’s valorization of jobs in the public sector and with the government. It discusses the advantages presented by the public sector in Egypt, why those jobs are valorized by women, and the strategies young women adopt in clinging to the hope of getting a public sector/government job, even as opportunities are rare