Women and Work in Egypt: The Effect of the Election of the Muslim Brotherhood on Female Labor Force Participation

In this paper, I analyze how the rise to power of the Muslim Brotherhood, marked by increased parliamentary power in late 2006 due to unprecedented success in the 2005 elections, impacts female labor force participation in districts in which Muslim Brotherhood candidates won compared to those in which they did not win. I use a difference in differences estimation strategy, using both district and individual fixed effects. Using data from the 1998, 2006, and 2012 Egyptian Labor Market Panel Survey and district-level voting data, I match district-level electoral outcomes to individual labor market variables. I find that compared to women in non-Muslim Brotherhood supporting districts, women in Muslim Brotherhood supporting districts show a generally insignificant change in likelihood of labor force participation following the Muslim Brotherhood’s parliamentary success. The lack of a differential trend in female labor force participation for women in Muslim Brotherhood supporting districts holds for most subpopulations and when a Heckman correction is used. These results suggest that the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise to power cannot explain the decline in female labor force participation observed in Egypt.