Springing into Action: A Consideration of Policies Encouraging Female Political Participation in Tunisia and Egypt

Abstract

What causes women to have higher political participation? There are several competing arguments as to why some countries experience higher female political participation than others. These include the introduction of gender quotas, a country’s cultural norms, and widespread social/political movements within a country. In a case study comparing Egypt and Tunisia leading before and after the Arab Spring, Tunisia has repeatedly reported higher levels of female political participation. Both these countries participated in the Arab Spring, have similar societal perception of females bound to their traditional roles, and report similar socioeconomic statistics regarding female literacy rates and female employment-to-population rates. Tunisia, however, was successful in increasing female political participation after the implementation of a gender quota under a new government after the Arab Spring. This differs from Egypt, where the post-Arab Spring government, the Muslim Brotherhood, revoked the country’s gender quota and experienced a decrease in female political participation.