Highlights

On April 5, Inger Andersen, World Bank Vice President for the MENA region and Tara Vishwanath, World Bank Lead Economist in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management group, were at the CMI to present the report “Opening Doors: Gender Equality and Development in the Middle East and North Africa”.

The report identifies a whole set of economic, legal and cultural hurdles that have kept the region’s women out of public life and out of the labor market. Despite the great strides taken by women over the last four decades in health and higher education, the report details the multiple challenges women face. Only one in four women in MENA are employed or looking for work, half the global rate. The high rate of unemployment amongst women, exacerbated by difficulty of balancing a career with raising a family, only serves to widen disparities between men and women. 
The report was discussed with a diverse group of academics, civil society representatives, women entrepreneurs and representatives of development institutions.

Read more on: "Missing Voices: Gender Equality in the Arab World" - World Bank Featured Story