BRUGES CAMPUS

EU INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS AND DIPLOMACY
STUDIES

Is it a MAN’S world? Assessing the EU’s actorness in gender

equality promotion within the ENP framework
A comparative study of Egypt and Tunisia.

Supervisor: Charles-Michel GEURTS Thesis presented by

Theodora ANTONIOU
for the
Degree of Master of Arts in
EU International Relations
and Diplomacy Studies
Academic Year 2016-2017

1
Statutory Declaration

I hereby declare that this thesis has been written by myself without any external
unauthorised help, that it has been neither submitted to any institution for evaluation nor
previously published in its entirety or in parts. Any parts, words or ideas, of the thesis,
however limited, and including tables, graphs, maps etc., which are quoted from or
based on other sources, have been acknowledged as such without exception.

Moreover, I have also taken note and accepted the College rules with regard to
plagiarism (Section 4.2 of the College study regulations).

<17.964 words>

2
Acknowledgments
First of all I would like to thank my supervisor Mr. Charles-Michel GEURTS for his
guidance and for choosing to supervise me.
Secondly, I would like to express my gratitude to my academic assistant Aurore
LOSTE, who throughout this intense and stressful period she provided me with constant
help, encouragement, sound advice, and lots of amazing ideas. I would have been lost
without her.
This thesis is dedicated to all women out there, the mothers the daughters the sisters the
wives, the fierce the strong the fearless the smart, the talented the ones that never give
up despite the difficulties, to every women out there who went through hardships to
every woman out there that thought she is not enough that she doesn’t matter that she
doesn’t have a voice, to every women that thought she is not equal, To all the woman
out there, remember you are the future.

More specifically this thesis is dedicated to my mother, the one that showed me how
powerful women should be, my greatest inspiration, my hero, the greatest women that I
will ever know.

“Here’s to strong women. May we know them. May we be them. May we

raise them.”

-Uknown

3
Abstract

The images of women of all ages and all backgrounds, floating the streets along with
men, demanding for justice democracy and respect for human rights defeating all
stereotypes that want women weak and voiceless will be forever engraved in our
memories. When the Arab Spring begun people hoped for a new future a future of rights
liberties and freedoms, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case, at least for most of the
countries of the Arab world. However the countries were not alone in this search for
hope, the EU was there to foster the transition process; nevertheless the Union was
constantly being criticized for not practicing what it’s preaching.

The present thesis addresses the EU’s gender equality promotion by comparing the
cases of Egypt and Tunisia aiming to assess the union’s actorness throughout its
relationship with the respective countries. The aim of this contribution is to respond to
whether the deterioration or improvement of the gender equality situation in the
respective countries is to be credited to the EU.

Since assessing the actorness of the EU is not sufficient to determine the gender
equality situation of a country, the thesis will be handled using a two-folded approach.
In the first phase I will analyse the EU’s actorness prior and post Arab Spring, using the
actorness components of opportunity, presence and capability.

In the second phase, my aim is to assess the in-country situation of gender equality, to
do so I will use the criteria of economic empowerment, educational attainment and
political representation. The last part of the assessment will be the comparison.

The findings of this research are two : First of all the gender equality situation is far
better in Tunisia than in Egypt, and secondly the situation of gender equality in the
respective countries is mostly due to internal factors rather than the EU’s actorness, as
the EU did contribute positively but was not the catalyst factor that determined the
situation.

4
Keywords

Gender equality

Egypt

Tunisia

ENP

Actorness

5
Table of Figures
Table 1: EU's overall actorness ....................................................................................... 54
Table 2: In-country gender equality assesment .............................................................. 55

6
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................... 3
Abstract............................................................................................................................ 4
Keywords ......................................................................................................................... 5
Table of Figures .............................................................................................................. 6
List of Abbreviations ...................................................................................................... 9
1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 10
1.1 Research question and hypothesis. ................................................................. 12
1.2 Structure of the thesis ..................................................................................... 13
2 Reaserch Design .................................................................................................... 14
2.1 Case selection: Why Egypt and Tunisia? ....................................................... 14
2.2 Comparability criteria ..................................................................................... 15
2.3 Operationalisation of concepts........................................................................ 16
2.3.1 Definition of concepts ............................................................................... 17
2.3.1.1 Gender equality and Gender equality promotion .............................. 17
2.3.1.2 EU’s actorness ................................................................................... 17
2.4 How to assess EU’s actorness and gender equality ........................................ 17
2.4.1 Opportunity ............................................................................................... 18
2.4.2 Presence .................................................................................................... 18
2.4.3 Capability .................................................................................................. 19
2.4.4 Timeframe ................................................................................................. 19
2.4.5 How to measure actorness ........................................................................ 20
2.4.6 How to assess gender equality .................................................................. 20
2.5 Data. ................................................................................................................ 21
3 Assesing gender equality in Egypt within the ENP framework ....................... 22
3.1 EU-Egypt relations ......................................................................................... 22
3.2 EU’s gender equality promotion in Egypt prior to the Arab Spring ............... 23
3.2.1.1 Opportunity........................................................................................ 23
3.2.2 Presence .................................................................................................... 25
3.2.3 Capability .................................................................................................. 27
3.3 EU’s promotion of gender equality in Egypt after the Arab Spring ............... 29
3.3.1 Opportunity ............................................................................................... 29
3.3.2 Presence .................................................................................................... 31

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 3.3.3 Capability. ................................................................................................. 33
4 Assessing Gender equality in Tunisia ................................................................. 36
4.1 EU-Tunisia relations ....................................................................................... 36
4.2 Assessing EU’s actorness in Tunisia prior to the Arab Spring ....................... 36
4.2.1 Opportunity ............................................................................................... 36
4.2.2 Presence .................................................................................................... 39
4.2.3 Capability .................................................................................................. 39
4.3 Assessing gender equality in Tunisia post Arab Spring ................................. 40
4.3.1 Opportunity ............................................................................................... 40
4.3.2 Presence .................................................................................................... 42
4.3.3 Capability. ................................................................................................. 44
5 Assessing the status of gender equality in Egypt and Tunisia .......................... 48
5.1 Gender equality status in Egypt ...................................................................... 48
5.1.1 Economic opportunity............................................................................... 48
5.1.2 Educational attainment ............................................................................. 49
5.2 Political empowerment ................................................................................... 50
5.3 Gender equality status in Tunisia.................................................................... 51
5.3.1 Economic opportunity............................................................................... 51
5.3.2 Educational attainment ............................................................................. 51
5.3.3 Political empowerment ............................................................................. 52
5.4 Overall in-country assessment ........................................................................ 52
6 Comparison ........................................................................................................... 53
6.1.1 EU’s Overall opportunity comparison In Egypt and Tunisia ................... 55
6.1.2 EU’s overall presence comparison, in Egypt and Tunisia ........................ 58
6.1.3 EU’s overall capability comparison in Egypt and Tunisia ....................... 59
6.1.4 An overall assessment ............................................................................... 61
7 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 63
8 Bibliography .......................................................................................................... 65

8
List of Abbreviations

AA Association Agreement

ATFD Association of Tunisian Democratic women

CSF Civil Society Facility

CSP Country Strategy Paper

EEAS External Action Service

EEAS European External Action Service

EED European Endowment for Democracy

EMP Euro Mediterranean Partnership

ENP European Neighborhood Policy

EU European Union

GII Gender Inequality Index

LTDH Tunisian Human Rights League

MENA Middle East and North Africa

MS Member States

NCW National Council for Women

NSA Non State Actors programme

PSC Personal Status Code

SPRING Support for Partnership, Reforms and Inclusive Growth

TEU Treaty on European Union

TFEU Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union

UfM Union for the Mediterranean

UN United Nations

USA United States

9
1 Introduction

Reinforcing gender equality and promoting women’s rights are pivotal actions when it
comes to establishing and ensuring social justice for all. Women play an essential role
in all societies nevertheless, they are often not aware or misinformed of their rights and
they are not treated equally in the decision making processes consequently, in most
cases they are often unable to plead and contend their social, economic, reproductive
and cultural rights.

While numerous international conventions with the most important being the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights article 2 which states that “Everyone is entitled to all the
rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as
race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin,
property, birth or other status”1 and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women of 1979 (CEDAW) which defines discrimination as
"[..].any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the
effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by
women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of
human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil
or any other field."2

However, sadly it is often evident that the words of the international community do not
match its actions. For the European Union (EU) gender equality promotion within as
well as outside the union is considered to be one of its fundamental values, ever since
the creation of the Treaty of Rome3. Women’s rights have been enshrined by the Treaty
on the European Union (TEU) article 24 and 35 and by the Treaty on the functioning of

1
UN General Assembly, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10 December 1948, 217 A (III).
2
UN General Assembly, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women,
18 December 1979, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1249, p. 13.
3
European Commission, "Gender Equality” retrieved on 2/5/17
4
European Union, “Consolidated Versions of the Treaty on the European Union and the Treaty on the
functioning of the European Union of 13 December 2007”, Official Journal of the European Union, C115,
9 May 2008, Art.2 “The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom,
democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons
belonging to minorities. These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism,
non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail”.
5
Ibid, Art 3. “It shall combat social exclusion and discrimination, and shall promote social justice and
protection, equality between women and men, solidarity between generations and protection of the rights
of the child”.

10
the European Union (TFEU) by article 8 6 and 10 7 as well as by the Chapter of
fundamental rights of the EU8. Using the legal basis of EU law, the Union has ratified
thirteen directives on gender equality since the 1970s 9, which do not only prescribe
women’s rights within the EU but also the structure and the mechanisms of the union’s
external relations while including clear aims which are to be achieved through dialogue
with third countries. Despite all that, the EU has been frequently accused with not
practising as it preaches, especially when it comes to the Middle East and North Africa
(MENA) region10

The MENA region is considered to be one of the worst regions the world for a woman
to live in, as women in MENA are majorly unprivileged socially culturally and
economically11.

Hopes that the situation of women would have changed after the Arab spring were
flourishing given the fact that during the upheavals women were a central actor and
despite their large recognition, women’s rights situation in the region as a whole did not
advance majorly apart from few exceptions such as Tunisia and Morocco, while on the
contrary some countries such as Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria have even witnessed
severe deterioration in the matter12

The EU’s response to the gender inequalities in the MENA region is the European
Neighbourhood policy (ENP) through which the Union is trying to ameliorate the
situation and battle gender discrimination.

The ENP is a foreign relations instrument that seeks to enhance EU’s relationship with
its eastern and southern neighbours13, and it started operating in 2004. Before the ENP
and only for the southern countries the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) was in

6
Ibid, TFEU, Art 8 “In all its activities, the Union shall aim to eliminate inequalities, and to promote
equality, between men and women”.
7
Ibid, TFEU Art 10 “In defining and implementing its policies and activities, the Union shall aim to
combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual
orientation”
8
European Union, “Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, of 18 December 2000” ,
official journal of the European Union, 2012/C 326/02, 26 October 2012
9
"European Commission, Press Release, “50 Years of EU Gender Equality law", 25 October 2007.
10
Amaro Dias Vanda, “A Critical Analysis of the EU’s Response to the Arab Spring and its Implications
for EU Security” Human Security Perspectives Journal, No. 1, 2014, p 29.
11
Bianchini S., “The EU’s Promotion of Gender Equality in Egypt: Towards a New Strategy?”, E-
International relations students, Jan 27 2016.
12
Bianchini S, opcit.
13
European Commission, Joint communication to the European parliament, the Council, the European
economic and social committee and the committee of the regions, “Review of the European
Neighbourhood Policy”, Brussels , 18 November 2015.

11
charge. The EMP was initiated in the Barcelona conference between the EU and twelve
other Mediterranean countries

In 2008 the Union for the Mediterranean was launched, aiming at enhancing the EMP.
Its goals among others were to boost regional and policy dialogue as well as create
strategic projects and initiatives per region14.

“Nowadays relationships with the EU and the southern countries are conducted in the
framework of the ENP, in this framework countries are committed to obligations such
as government and economic reform and the respect of human rights and the rule of
law”15 .

The ENP’s legal bases are the Action plans which set the priorities of actions and areas
of commitment between the EU and the respective countries. More specifically gender
equality issues mainly constitute the corpus of three sections of the ENP action plans:
the promotion of human rights; social policies and employment; and combating
trafficking of human beings, especially women and children16.

1.1 Research question and hypothesis.

My aim for this contribution will be to conduct a qualitative research assessing the EU’s
women’s rights promotion efforts within the ENP framework, by analysing the cases of
Egypt and Tunisia. My research will answer to the following research question “To
what extent does the European Union promotes gender equality in Egypt and Tunisia”.

The thesis will be to examining the EU’s actorness in gender equality promotion in the
two countries by analysing how the agreements between the EU and third countries
contribute to the promotion of women’s rights, and construe the different manifestations
of gender equality promotion within the context of the EU’s external relations. The
hypotheses of this thesis are two: The first one is that the EU’s gender equality

14
Ibid
15
Antoniou Theodora, “The limits of EU's normative power: The case of Egypt” paper for the course ‘EU
democracy promotion and human rights policy’, Bruges College of Europe, 30 March 2017
16
Neisse Judith, “Integration of the Gender Perspective into EU Development and Cooperation Policy”
European Institute of the Mediterranean, No. 275, 2011, p2.

12
promotion efforts flourished more in Tunisia than Egypt and the second is that the
progress or deterioration of the situation in the countries was mostly based on internal
factors and not on the ENP policies.

1.2 Structure of the thesis

After giving a short background and presenting the research question and hypothesis,
the second chapter will be dedicated to the research design. In this chapter I will present
the case selection, meaning the reasons why I chose to analyse Egypt and Tunisia, the
comparability criteria which explain why Egypt and Tunisia are comparable cases, the
definitions of concepts which will be used in the thesis. Following that I will present
how I will assess those concepts and how I will measure them as well as the timeframe
which will be used to assess my analysis. Lastly, in this chapter I will include the data
which will be used in my research

Moving on, in the third and fourth chapter I will analyse the EU’s actorness in Egypt
and Tunisia respectively and in the fifth chapter, I will analyse the status of women in
the respective countries.

The sixth chapter will include my comparison and my overall assessment of actorness,
and my answers to my hypothesis.

The last chapter will include my conclusion, where after briefly summing up the thesis,
I will answer to my research question and I will cite possible future policy
recommendations for the EU based on the discovery of this thesis.

13
2 Reaserch Design

In order to tackle all the aspects of my thesis and sufficiently answer to my research
question and hypothesis, my methodology will be consisted of two methodological
points. First methodological point will be the assessment of EU’s actorness in Gender
equality promotion in the two countries, while, the second methodological point will be
the comparative case study

Therefore, my research will be conducted in three stages. In the first stage my aim will
be to separately assess each country’s progress in gender equality within the ENP
program by analysing 2 different periods.

The second part of my research will be the countries assessment part, thus I will isolate
the two countries and evaluate their progress in gender equality again using clear and
measurable criteria.

Finally the third part will be the comparison. In this part my goal is to merge my
findings from the two previous stages and compare the two countries in order to draw
my conclusions. Therefore I will finally be able to clearly see firstly which of the two
countries is more developed in gender equality matters and secondly examine whether
that progress was due to the EU’s promotion of gender equality or was it due other
external factors.

2.1 Case selection: Why Egypt and Tunisia?

As I mentioned in my introductory chapter, the gender equality situation in most of the

countries of the MENA region is considered to be in the worst state than any other
region in the world. One the one hand the reason why I chose to compare the two
countries is that in the case of Egypt a severe deterioration of women’s rights has been
noted after the Arab spring. According to both the Gender Inequality Index and the
Thomson Reuter’s Foundation (2013) Egypt has been reported the worst place for
women in the MENA17. On the other hand, Tunisia is the only country involved in the

17
Bianchini S, opcit.

14
Arab Spring that has profitably transited into a democratic state and is the only
consolidated democracy in the region, while the respect of Human Rights in the county
is flourishing 18 . Thus as we can already observe both Egypt and Tunisia have very
important similarities and are yet so different therefore, thus a comparison between the
two countries will answer my research question.

2.2 Comparability criteria

As previously mentioned, comparability criteria will help to examine to what extent are
Egypt and Tunisia comparable cases. To begin with, both countries share similar
economic, political, societal, educational and geographical characteristics. As far as the
economic criteria are concerned both are middle income countries that mostly have
similar resources economic structures as well as similar Gross Domestic Product
(GDP)19. Politically both countries are similar to the aspect that they went through
decades of dictatorship, the Arab Spring, as well as the post Arab Spring disturbance
and the democratization process.

Forasmuch the societal aspect is concerned, both countries are Arab and Muslim,
speaking the same language while sharing similar traditions and norms of living.
Education wise both countries have very similar levels of literacy 75,84 % in Egypt and
81.05 in Tunisia20. Lastly geographically both countries belong to the Middle East.

Moreover apart from all the similarities between them, both countries have similar
relationship with the EU. Both countries belong to the ENP program and they both
joined at the same year, both were part in the EMP program and the Union for the
Mediterranean (UfM) and lastly both have the same binding agreements with the EU
such as Cooperation Agreements, Association Agreements (AA) the UfM agreement
and lastly the Action Plans (AP).

Even though Egypt and Tunisia are very similar in most aspects they also have
distinctive differences. First of all in the political aspect even though both countries

18
Country profile: Tunisia, The CIA world factbook, 20 February 2016
19
Egypt vs Tunisia - Country Facts Comparison, 2017.
20
Ibid

15
governmentally are described as Unitary Semi Presidential Republics, the level of
democracy and freedom in Tunisia21 is far more elevated than in Egypt22.

Moreover in the societal domain both countries have decidedly different degrees of
activity of civil society, and civil society freedoms with Tunisia again being far more
advanced. Lastly Geographically speaking Egypt is a much bigger country than Tunisia
with much higher population ( 91.5 million in Egypt 11.5 million in Tunisia)23

Consequently both countries have also some differences in their relationship with the
EU. Even though the programs that construe their relationship with the EU are the
same, the content of the programs is different. This can be explained by the fact that the
EU has a different relationship with each country, different visions, issues to tackle and
undeniably different aims to acquire from each country. Thus, the programs of the EU
have dissimilar priorities , and budgets for each country.

Thus the programs of the EU have different priorities, and different budgets for each
country. For example in 2016 The Annual Action Programme 2016 in favour of Tunisia
amounted to €213.5 while for Egypt was €10024. For Tunisia in 2016 priority was given
to the modernisation of the public sector while for Egypt to citizens’ rights 25. After
presenting the comparability criteria I will now precede into the Operationalisation of
the concepts that will be used in this Thesis.

2.3 Operationalisation of concepts

The key concepts of this contribution are Gender Equality in Egypt and Tunisia and the
actorness of the EU’s action in promoting Gender equality in the two countries.

21
CIA World factbook, “Country profile : Tunisia” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-
factbook/geos/eg.html
22
Opcit, “Country profile : “Egypt”
23
Ibid
24
European Commission,”Egypt - European Neighbourhood Policy And Enlargement Negotiations”,
2017.
25
Ibid

16
2.3.1 Definition of concepts

2.3.1.1 Gender equality and Gender equality promotion

“Gender equality can be defined as the state where both men and women are treated
equally in all aspects of life, meaning having the same rights responsibilities and
opportunities across all sectors of society and decision making processes no matter if
they are born male or female”26

2.3.1.2 EU’s actorness

Gunna Sjöstedt was the first to introduce the concept in his attempt to define the
competence of the newly formed European Community (EC) to the international scene
as the “the ability to function actively and deliberately in relation to other actors in the
international system”27. In recent years, Bretherton and Vogler enhanced this definition,
by in seeing it as “a complex set of interacting processes, based on the notion of
presence, opportunity and capability, which combine in varying ways to shape the
Union’s external activities”28. According to them the EU is an institution that “exhibits
a degree of autonomy from its external environment and[…] its internal
constituents[…]that is capable of formulating purposes and making decisions.”29

2.4 How to assess EU’s actorness and gender equality

I will examine EU’s actorness using the three components of actorness which I will
explain in the following lines

26
United Nations, "OSAGI Gender Mainstreaming - Concepts and Definitions", 2017.
27
Huigens, Judith, Arne Niemann. "The G8 1/2: The EU's Contested And Ambiguous Actorness In The
G8". Cambridge Review of International Affairs ,Vol.24, No.4 ,2011, p.630.
28
Bretherton Charlotte, John Vogler, The European Union As A Global Actor, London, Routledge, 2006,
p. 24.
29
Ibid

17
2.4.1 Opportunity

The definition of opportunity according to Bretherton and Vogler is that “opportunity

denotes factors in the external environment of ideas and events which constrain or
enable actorness. Opportunity signifies the structural context of action”30. Therefore
opportunity is what enables action (or inaction) and enables actorness. Opportunity is
what insinuates the external environment what composes and builds EU action (or
inaction)31 although opportunity is clearly a structural characteristic it does not denote a
“dormant background”32 instead it frames a compelling process where ideas events etc
are being explained according to what they mean.33

2.4.2 Presence

Again according to Bretherton and Vogler, presence “conceptualizes the ability of the
EU, by virtue of its existence, to exert influence beyond its borders34”. However it was
Allen and Smith that came up with the concept of presence 35 . For them presence
signifies the capability to exercise influence externally and be able to form perceptions
expectations as well as the attitude of other actors.36 Moreover presence does not mean
intentional external action or involvement, on the contrary, presence is a “consequence”
or being37. Specifically it mirrors two closely interconnected sets of factors that define
the prominence and status of the EU in its external policies.38 The first factor is the
character and identity of the EU39. According to Bretherton and Vogler, “Character is
the Union’s material existence 40 , meaning the political system around the Member
States (MS), Identity, portrays the fundamental nature of the EU what the EU believes

30
Ibid
31
Ibid
32
Ibid
33
Ibid
34
Ibid, p 27.
35
Ibid p.33
36
Ibid
37
Ibid
38
Ibid
39
Ibid
40
Ibid

18
and what it promotes to the world.41 The second characteristic is the external results of
the Union’s internal priorities and policies 42 . Bretherton and Vogler explain that
characteristic by directly associating EU’s presence and actorness by saying that “EU
internal policy initiatives may generate responses from affected/aggrieved third parties
which in turn, necessitate action by the EU”43

2.4.3 Capability

Bretherton and Vogler, characterize capability as “the internal context of EU external

relation, the availability of policy instruments and understandings about the Union’s
ability to utilize these instruments, in response to opportunity and/or to capitalize on
presence” 44 In a nutshell capability refers to the internal context of EU action (or
inaction) the aspects of EU policy that empower external action thus facilitating the
Union to benefit on presence or respond to opportunity.45

2.4.4 Timeframe

In order to adequately assess the EU’s actorness in promoting Gender equality in the
two countries, I will divide my analysis into two phases. The first phase will consist the
pre-Arab spring therefore the documents that will be evaluated are: The association
agreement the Union for the Mediterranean agreement and lastly the ENP. The second
period will consist of the Arab spring, the two ENP reviews of 2011 and 2015 and the
current events. The reason for choosing these two phases is that before the Arab spring
things were mostly stable in both countries without any major shifting or changes when
it comes to women’s rights nevertheless, during and after the Arab spring we can clearly
see the outcomes deviated completely, the regimes in both countries fell while the EU
rushed to modify its policies so that the issue would be better addressed.

41
Ibid
42
Ibid
43
Ibid
44
Ibid, p 29
45
Ibid.

19
2.4.5 How to measure actorness

For each of the three components, I will examine some factors that either enhance or
restrain EU’s presence, opportunity, capability.

In furtherance of opportunity, the factors that I will be analyzing are the Global
institutional setting and the global interest/norm constellation and cleavages.46

For the case of EU’s presence I will examine the History of policies and agreements and
the legal acquis.

Lastly, concerning the capability component, the factors that I will be analyzing are, the
instruments the funding and the budget, the policy/agreement and objectives and the
actors procedure internally or externally.

2.4.6 How to assess gender equality

Gender equality can be measured by delving into the representation of men and women
in a range of domains. Thus in order to asses gender equality in the two countries I
chose three criteria that cover three different domains, which are ready to measure with
internationally agreed definitions. The criteria can be used in order to appraise the
results of various policies and mainstream interventions, they are important when it
comes to comparing situations as they can give a clear objective view of a country’s
situation. As I am conducting a qualitative research the criteria that will follow will also
be of qualitative nature.

The criteria that I chose to present are firstly the economic opportunity, meaning how
many women are actually working as well wage inequalities between men and women,
secondly the Political empowerment examining the number of women in the

46
Ibid p.24

20
government, and lastly the Educational attainment viewing the level of educated women
in the two countries47.

2.5 Data.

Given that the fact that my topic is multifaceted my aim for the data is to have a variety
of sources so that I will avoid one sided and biased results. In order to achieve that I will
first of all conduct Interviews. As the qualitative nature of my thesis allows, interviews
will be an important aspect of my data collection. Another source of data will be EU
official documents, ENP reviews and primary and secondary literature. Lastly and in a
smaller scale I will use statistics in order to examine the levels of gender equality
percentages of women occupying the different domains I mentioned above.

47
Compare countries using data from official sources, The global economy.

21
3 Assesing gender equality in Egypt within the ENP
framework

3.1 EU-Egypt relations

Relations between the two parties begun in 1977, in the form of a cooperation
agreement implemented through four bilateral protocols48. The cooperation agreement
had as a goal to promote economic, technical and financial aid as well as commercial
cooperation49. The agreement lasted until 1995.

In 1995, Egypt became part of the EMP. For Egypt the EMP was considered a pivotal
financial source in terms of development 50 hence Egypt was a very active member of
the partnership.

Meanwhile, the association agreement between the two countries aiming to complement
the ENP by creating a stronger bilateral framework, was finally signed in June 2001
and came into force in 2004 after five years if intense negotiations.

The association agreement is considered the framework for “regular political dialogue
between the two partners and enhanced cooperation in a number of key sectors, ranging
from trade and investment to energy and education, and also for sustained and
substantial EU assistance to Egypt's reform efforts”51 In 2008 Egypt also became part of
the UfM aiming to further enhance its EMP relations

“Nowadays the relations between Egypt and the EU are conducted in the framework of
the ENP52. “The ENP was considered by Egypt as the answer to its hopes for creating
deeper bonds with the Union and further integrate the country into the global scene53.
On the side of the EU, the ENP was seen as partnership to ensure peace and security in
the area and to improve the human rights situation through the conditionality in its

48
European Institute of reaserch on Mediterranean and Euro-Arab relations, EU-Egypt relations.
49
Ibid
50
Ibid
51
The European delegation to Egypt, Egypt and the EU.
52
Antoniou T,opcit.
53
Ibid

22
agreements54. However after the Arab uprisings the ENP plan has proven its inability to
actually deal with the various issues emerging”55

3.2 EU’s gender equality promotion in Egypt prior to the Arab

Spring

3.2.1.1 Opportunity

Beginning with the global institutional setting, during Mumbarak’s era; women in civil
society had more limitations than freedoms 56 . Emergency law, a governmental
instrument used from 1958 to 2012, certainly contributed to the unbearable situation57.
Emergency law can be used in case of national security threats, if the president evokes
the emergency law, police powers are increased, constitutional rights are suspended and
censorship is legalized 58. Therefore the government could easily control NGO’s and
their actions thus NGO’s needed authorization by the government to act59.

Moreover personal status law further deteriorated women’s situation in civil society60.
Personal status law plans the marriage in all its stages and it is mostly a contract
including the obligations of a woman towards the man, how a woman must obey her
husband etc61. This gives men the power over women and makes that power legally
binding 62 . The EU used its presence and its role as a normative power to exert its
influence and better the situation. However due to the emergency law and the strict
censorship rules as well as the poor education of women, the EU really struggled to
interact with the female civil society, Ngo’s and feminist movements.

54
Ibid
55
Ibid
56
Bianchini S.,op cit.
57
Worldwide Movement for Human Rights. “The Emergency Law In Egypt".
58
Kassem May, “In the guise of democracy: governance in contemporary Egypt”, Garnet & Ithaca
Press,1999.
59
Bianchini S.,opcit.
60
Bianchini S.,op cit.
61
Azza Soliman, "Personal Status Laws – Feminist Testimonies From Egypt", Madamasr.
62
Ibid

23
Instead the EU tried to work with Egypt's National Council for Women (NCW)63. The
national council for women is a government body dedicated solely to addressing the
issues and concerns of Egyptian women and it was created by upper class women. The
EU used the NCW as a strategic partner in its gender equality promotion in Egypt
especially for strategies carried by the ENP64.

However that partnership had its problems. First of all, the NCW was directed by Hosni
Mumbarak’s wife Suzzanne Mubarak, she was the president and had the right to elect
all secretaries and committees and had absolute power over the council 65, also being the
wife of a president that did not ever prioritize women’s rights in his time didn’t make
her exactly the ideal president. Secondly the NCW didn’t know much about the
problems that women in sectors like female labour or rural sectors and the EU was also
lacking the experience from such issues to intervene.66

Most projects that were issued lacked of efficiency, as they supported only female
entrepreneurs which clearly lacked of priority in a country that had issues such as
Genital mutilation, rapes, gender based violence etc.67 Thus from the above analysis we
can clearly see that the global institutional setting is weak and fragmented fact that
restrains EU’s opportunity in Egypt.

Moving to the Global interest/norm castellation and cleavages we can observe that the
EU and Egypt indeed shared the same interests however their interests were not in the
direction of gender equality68. The EU used human rights (especially after the events of
9/11) as a camouflage to cover its actual interests which was none other than regional
security 69 . This strategy also worked in line with the Egypt’s interests as by taking
advantage of the fact that EU’s priority was security, Egypt enhanced security risks in
order to get more financial aid and less pressure on human rights issues70.

Moreover, in reference to the shared interests/norms constellation or cleavages, from the

very beginning of the EU-Egypt relationship, the EU wanted to actively participate in
the country’s development 71 . From the first cooperation agreement of 1977, the EU

63
Interview with Pablo VELENZUELA, DG Near official, 26/4/17
64
Ibid
65
Bianchini S, opcit.
66
Ibid
67
Ibid
68
Ibid
69
Ibid
70
Ibid
71
Ibid

24
aimed at the “industrialization and the modernization of its agriculture, as well as
cooperation in the fields of science, technology, the protection of environment, the
fisheries sector and the encouragement of private investments”72 to the 2007 action
plan where, the EU aims “to enter into intensified political, security, economic, trade,
investment, scientific, technological and cultural relations”73, while gender equality was
referred in a small subcategory in the “enhanced Political dialogue and reform” 74 ,
Therefore once again, gender equality did not fit into none of the parties priorities , thus
we can see that the norms restrain the EU’s opportunity to act. Moreover Mubarak’s
regime’s norms on gender equality also restrain the EU’s opportunity to act. Therefore
taking into consideration the above analysis we can say that the EU’s opportunity before
the Arab Spring was certainly weak.

3.2.2 Presence

In order to begin analysing EU’s presence, we must first look at the History of policies
and agreements; taking into consideration the association agreement we can clearly see
that human rights and specifically gender equality were not a big priority. In the whole
document there is only one mention of human rights “Relations between the Parties, as
well as all the provisions of the Agreement itself, shall be based on respect of
democratic principles and fundamental human rights as set out in the Universal
Declaration on Human Rights, which guides their internal and international policy and
constitutes an essential element of this Agreement.”75 Despite the lack of clear and well
structured human rights clauses in the plans there is also an evident lack of women’s
rights clauses. One can argue that the distinction is not necessary to make, because
women’s rights are human rights, however this exact ambiguity was what led the EU to

72
European Institute of research on Mediterranean and Euro-Arab relations, opcit.
73
European Union, Association Agreement between the European Union on the one part and the
Republic of Egypt on the other part, 2007, p1
74
Ibid.
75
European Union, Euro-Mediterranean Agreement Establishing an association between the European
communities and their member states, of the one part, and the Arab republic of Egypt, of the other part,
22 April 2002

25
continue its relations within the framework of the agreement regardless the numerous
women’s rights violations in the country76.

In the case of UfM, at first it was perceived as a light of hope for human rights and
gender equality, as it appeared to have clearer and more structured approaches, but soon
this image was torn apart 77 . The reasons for that were two. To begin with, Hosni
Mumbarak, a president that was never known for his respect towards human rights was
the co-president of the UfM. Secondly gender equality promotion again did not appear
in the then UfM’s priority areas78.

Lastly concerning the ENP, in the association agreement there is indeed an

improvement in terms of precision but there is certainly an issue with consistency fact
that restrains the EU’s presence 79 . In the agreement there is indeed a paragraph
dedicated to women’s and children’s rights under the priorities of actions which in brief
states the “Promote the enhancement of women’s participation in political, economic
and social life as well as their role in the political decision-making process by
supporting the formulation and implementation of Egypt’s government policies and
programmes”80.

Additionally it mentions that “Support Egypt’s efforts to promote gender equality and
reinforce the fight against discrimination and gender-based violence, including
strengthening the activities of the National Council for Women including its periodic
review of the relevant existing legislation and recommendations for new legislation”81.
However we can clearly see that the policy did not meet the practice. This can be
observed at the ENP progress reports for Egypt. In 2008 there is no mention about
gender equality improvement in the country and same applies for year 2009. Fact that
clearly shows that gender equality promotion by the EU the prior to the Arab spring was
mostly a “façade”82 and strains the EU’s presence in the country in terms of gender
equality. Thus, from the above analysis we can conclude that the history of policies in
Egypt was weak as there weren’t any clear provisions in regards to gender equality.

76
Bianchini S, opcit
77
Ibid
78
Ibid
79
Ibid
80
European Union, Association Agreement between the European Union on the one part and the
Republic of Egypt on the other part, OJ L 230, 28.8.2008, p1.
81
European Union, “Association Agreement between the European Union on the one part and the
Republic of Egypt on the other part”, opcit, p7.
82
Bianchini S, opcit.

26
As far as the EU legal acquis is concerned, it can be characterized as strong. Gender
equality and women’s rights apart from being considered among the EU’s fundamental
values, they are also enshrined in the treaties. Firstly in the TEU articles 2 and 3 as well
as in the TFEU articles 8 and 1083. A strong legal acquis enhances the EU’s presence in
Egypt. Additionally, with regards to violence against girls and women, clear guidelines
were adopted in 2008 by the European Union 84 . The guidelines set operational
objectives and tools for the EU’s external action in order to battle violence against
women as well as all forms of gender discrimination85

Therefore, we can conclude that the EU’s presence is not strong in the area of gender
equality the reason is even though there is a strong EU legal acquis in the area and
policies on human rights there were not specific policies on gender equality, fact that
restrains EU’s presence.

3.2.3 Capability

To begin with the funding instruments and the policy and agreement objectives we must
look into the two main financial instruments for promoting gender equality in Egypt
prior to the Arab Spring, the MEDA and the ENPI86.

To begin with, the MEDA was the main financial instrument for the EMP and it was
used from 1996 until 2006 where it was replaced by the ENPI. Unfortunately, its
performance on gender equality matters was very poor. Its lack of gender indicators as
well as its lack of procedures for gender analysis did not change anything majorly when
it comes to gender equality and this can also be observed in its annual reports 87 .
Moreover even though the EU did offer some funds for gender equality promotion from
the MEDA budget to Egypt, the funds were mostly distributed for projects aiding

83
"European Commission, Press Release , Questions And Answers: “What Is The EU Doing For
Women's Rights And Gender Equality?”, March 8 2017
84
European Parliament, Directorate-General for internal policies, Policy department C, “Citizens’ rights
and Constitutional affairs”, Gender Equality policy in Tunisia, 2012.
85
Ibid
86
European Parliament, “The European Neighborhood policy in depth analysis”, opcit.
87
Bianchini S, opcit.

27
women in the economic sphere, where the need to cover more urgent domains was
crystal clear88.

The EMP did not have clear cut objectives since it was created around this idea of
holistic materialism 89 meaning that systems should be viewed as wholes and not
individually90. This holistic materialism led to having a one size fits all models which
took off the possibility of gender equality being on the spotlight of gender promotion in
the EU’s external policies in Egypt91.

In the case of the ENP things did not look any better. As the successor of the MEDA it
was created in 2004, as one the main instruments to finance relations with southern
Mediterranean countries but also as the major instrument where conditionality and the
so called “more for more” was present92. Unfortunately once again women’s rights did
not appear as a priority and the “more for more” principal was criticized for not
including less for less, when human rights and therefore women’s rights were keep
being violated while the EU kept financing Egypt93. Something that shows once more
that gender equality promotion was not in the EU’s priorities in the region. For instance
during the period from 2007 to 2013 the EU, financed Egypt by 1 billion Euros mostly
to its treasury, despite the continuous human rights violations, including women’s
abuses such as genital mutilation etc94.

Therefore, it is evident that the various financial instruments aimed at promoting gender
equality were not strong, and they lack of efficiency, moreover the objectives aimed at
promoting gender equality in Egypt while the EU procedures were problematic, lastly
the lack of EU actors promoting gender equality restrain the EU’s capability.

88
Ibid.
89
Bilgic, 2011 p.148
90
Ibid
91
Bianchini S, opcit.
92
Ibid
93
Ibid
94
Ibid

28
3.3 EU’s promotion of gender equality in Egypt after the Arab
Spring

3.3.1 Opportunity

To begin with the global institutional setting, the fact that the Arab Spring caught the
EU off guard shows that the EU did not sufficiently engaged and dialogued with
Egypt’s civil society95. However that approach was not one sided. Many of the women’s
movements that were created after the events of 2001 were not insistent in interacting
with the EU either, the various social movements and NGO’s emerged mostly viewed
themselves as “neither as Islamist nor secularist and feminist, but as activists” 96 thus
they did not want any involvement with the EU or any other political actor and
preferred to become involved in civil society organizations which went further in gender
issues also partitioning for equal citizenship and democracy97. Meanwhile other women
coordinated with men to create groups such as Shoft Taharosh (I see Harasment) an
NGO which was battling gender based violence in Tahir square 98 . Nevertheless and
despite their help and participation in the social movements of 2011, women in Egypt
found it very hard to adapt into the public life after the revolution.

Moreover, the law on civic associations (NGOs) that was drafted and adopted by
Egypt’s parliament did not ease the situation99. The law is designed to put restrictions
on the functioning of civil society organizations and their general activities by putting
them under the control of the government100. Therefore this will mean the end of civil
society organizations and the end of Egypt’s human rights movement. 101 There is no
question that , the situation also affects women as given the fact that the government
already offers very little space for women to actively participate in the civil society this
will even worsen the situation. And recent events can prove that. Nazra for Feminist

95
Ibid
96
'Islamist and Secular Women’s Activism and Discourses in Post Uprising Tunisia', in Maha El Said,
Lena Meari and Nicola Pratt (eds.), Rethinking Gender in Revolutions and Resistance: Lessons from the
Arab World , London, Zed press, August 2014, p14.
97
Bianchini S, opcit.
98
Ibid
99
Najjar, Farah. "Egypt's NGO Law Aims To 'Erase Civil Society'". Aljazeera.com. 16 February 2017
100
Ibid
101
Muhanna Matar, “Egypt's Draft NGO Law Dismantles Civil Society". Worldwide Movement for
Human Rights, 24 November 2016.

29
Studies is a civil society organisation which aims to secure gender equality by pushing
the government to implement the national Strategy for the Elimination of Violence
against Women in Egypt.102 Nazra was called to be part of the official interrogation
targeting civil society organisations. 103 Since in Egypt in order to eradicate the civil
society organization the government decided to reopen the foreign funding case against
NGO’s through which various measures are harassing and silencing the human rights
movement 104 . In order to protest against that on December 12th 2016, international
organizations signed a joint letter addressed to EU authorities, regarding the silencing of
Egypt’s civil society105.

Moving to the interest/norm constellations, as it was mentioned above, the aim of the
reviewed ENP policy was none other than stability in the Mediterranean region.
Therefore we can say that the EU from 2014 onwards was mostly focused on two
issues. Firstly on securing the area in such harsh times of crises, using Egypt as strategic
actor and secondly on promoting human rights including gender equality. However the
EU again prioritized security over human rights. According to human rights watch
report which states that many political prisoners including women are being victims of
torture and without having the basic rights of a bed or seeing family 106 . Moreover
according to a UN Women report “99.3% of Egyptian women explained they had been
sexually harassed, 91% of them admitting they did not feel safe on the streets” 107 while
the Criminal Code only partially criminalizes rape, sexual assault and sexual
harassment. 108 Lastly, gender based domestic violence even after the constitutional
reform is being widely tolerated with the government doing practically nothing to
minimise the problem, on the contrary many articles of the criminal law are available to
undermine the importance of such crimes and diminish consequences for such acts.109

Lastly, during the regime change from Morsi to al Sisi the EU and MS showed clash
between their interests. First of all the EU was satisfied by Al-Sisi’s controversial

102
"Joint Letter - The Silencing Of Egypt’S Civil Society: The EU Must Uphold Its Policy
Commitments" 12 December 2016.
103
Global fund for women, “Global fund for Women condemns Egypt’s crackdown on leading women’s
group Nazra for Feminist Studies”,
104
The silencing of Egypt’s civil society: “The EU must uphold its policy commitments”
105
"Joint Letter - The Silencing Of Egypt’S Civil Society: The EU Must Uphold Its Policy
Commitments" 12 December 2016.
106
Human Rights Watch, "Egypt".
107
Euromed rights, “Egypt: report on violence against women”, December 09, 2016.
108
Ibid
109
Ibid

30
overthrown of Morsi’s democratically elected government all while knowing the gender
violence committed by the military under Sisi’s control110. Secondly the EU delegation
to Egypt wrote a very criticizing report which condemned the gender equality status in
the country especially during the 2014 controversial elections which led to its
banishment from the NCW seminar 111 , all while German chancellor Angela Merkel
invited Sisi to Belrin after saying that she will not, given the human rights status in
Egypt stating that “I think that if one wants to be partners and solve complex issues, we
have to be able talk about these things,” 112and Italy’s Minster Renzi called Sisi a “Great
leader”113.

Overall the global institutional setting after the Arab spring was weak and fragmented.
Moreover regarding the norm and interest constellation and cleavages, we can again
observe that the EU and Egypt shared the same interest, but again the interest was not in
the direction of gender equality.

3.3.2 Presence

To begin with the History of policies and agreements, The EU was very confused on
how to tackle the situation. Firstly the EU demanded for a democratic reform of the
existing regime and not the withdrawal of the president114. By doing so the EU thought
that it could ease the situation by avoiding damage. As this didn’t exactly ameliorated
the situation the EU along with the United States of America (USA) backed the change
and declared that it’s time for Mumbarak to step down and leave room for progress and
change 115 . However the longstanding dilemma of whether the EU should focus on
human rights or security was still haunting its policies116.

The inability to answer to that dilemma resulted to vague and ineffective gender
equality policies during and after the revolution117. Looking into the history of EU’s
policies, in its first response to the uprisings the “Partnership for Democracy and Shared
110
Bianchini S, opcit.
111
Bianchini S, opcit.
112
Brenner Yermi, “Germany offers two-faced welcome to Egypt’s Sisi”, Al-Jazeera, June 3 2015.
113
Serra, Barbara, “Q&A with Italian PM: ‘I think Sisi is a great leader”, Al-Jazeera, July 12 2015
114
Bianchini S, opcit.
115
Ibid
116
Ibid
117
Ibid

31
prosperity with the Southern Mediterranean” women’s rights were only mentioned once
under the democracy and institution building and of course gender equality promotion
was once again out of the focal points118. All this while the media and many country
reports were denouncing the continuous women’s rights violations witnessed in Tahir
square.

In The third response “A new response to a changing Neighbourhood” there was also
only one mention of gender equality promotion under the partnership with societies
sector119. “Commitment to human rights[..] Includes a strong commitment to promoting
gender equality, in line with the major role once again played by women in recent
events in the South[..] Protecting the rights of refugees and beneficiaries of international
protection120 while in the 2011 Support for Partnership, Reforms and Inclusive Growth
(SPRING) program there was no mention of financing gender equality promotion121.

Additionally, the Annual Action Programme of 2014 in favour of Egypt to be financed

from the general budget of the European Union has no mention of gender or women
rights whatsoever122. While the thematic reports have no mention of gender either123.
The following year the Annual Action programme of 2015 refers to gender equality in
its actions by including the gender aspect into the general thematic report of “Citizens
rights project” the aim of this project is to “The overall objective of this project is to
contribute to the provision of rights by the Government of Egypt to its citizens as
provided for in the 2014 Constitution”124

118
European commission, “Joint Communication To The European Council, The European Parliament,
The Council, The European Economic And Social Committee And The Committee Of The Regions A
Partnership For Democracy And Shared Prosperity With The Southern Mediterranean”, Brussels,
8.3.2011 COM(2011) 200 final.
119
European commission, “Joint communication to the European parliament, the council, the European
economic and social committee and the committee of the regions, A New Response To A Changing
Neighbourhood”, Brussels, 25/05/2011, COM(2011) 303. p
120
Ibid
121
European Union, “Action Fiche for the southern Neighbourhood region programme Support for
partnership, reforms and inclusive growth (SPRING)”.
122
European Comission, commission implementing decision of 23.10.2014 on the Annual Action
Programme 2014 in favour of Egypt to be financed from the general budget of the European Union,
Brussels, 23.10.2014 C(2014) 7615 final.
123
European Comission, ANNEX to the Commission implementing Decision on the Annual Action
Programme 2014 in favour of Egypt, Brussels, 23.10.2014 C(2014) 7615 final.
124
European Commission, Commission Implementing Decision Of 22.7.2015 On The Annual Action
Programme 2015 In Favour Of Egypt To Be Financed From The General Budget Of The European
Union, Brussels, 22.7.2015 C(2015) 5244 Final.

32
Lastly the 2016 Annual Action Programme has its first part dedicated to gender equality
and women’s rights protection. Specifically the programme states that “[..]Contribute to
the improvement of the situation of women in Egypt by advancing women's rights125.

Ignoring the year of 2014 the years of 2015 and 2016 the EU has undeniably put
women’s rights and gender equality into the spotlight of its policies and it’s perhaps the
first time in the ENP history that policy meets practice and coherence can be seen at
least at the EU level.

To sum up, we can observe that overall the EU’s presence here was strong as it
developed policies focused on gender equality promotion, fact that enhances the EU’s
presence.

3.3.3 Capability.

EU’s capability in Egypt after the Arab spring can be characterized as majorly improved
but not so effective. To begin with the instruments, the “New response to a changing
Neighbourhood” included the UfM however other instruments were also created such as
the European Endowment for Democracy (EED) and the Support for Partnership, and
the SPRING program. These instruments had somehow some reference to women
nevertheless none of them was fully engaged in promoting gender equality126.

Still the new initiatives launched by the EU, still had some positive sides. To begin with
the aid was differentiated according to the progress that has been made in the promotion
of human rights. Secondly the negative conditionality was introduced which allowed the
EU to reduce aid if the agreements were not fulfilled127. The UfM also contributed to
the promotion of women’s rights, even though as it was mentioned gender equality was
missing from its agenda before 2011, after the Arab Spring it included provisions that
strongly include women in their project bases approaches and strategies128.

125
European Commission Implementing Decision Of 13.7.2016 On “The Annual Action Programme
2016 (Part I) In Favour Of Egypt To Be Financed From The General Budget Of The European Union”,
Brussels, 13.7.2016 C(2016) 4633 Final.
126
Bianchini S, opcit.
127
Ibid
128
Union for the Mediterranean, “Union third Ministerial Conference on Strengthening the Role of
Women in Society takes place in Paris”, 12 September 2013.

33
As far as policy agreements and objectives are concerned, the citizens project under the
2015 annual action which was mentioned above had two main components: Component
one will strengthen the National Council for Human Rights [..] Component two aims at
strengthening participation of women in public life. It foresees a focus on empowerment
of women to increasingly contribute to shaping the society, access to citizen rights and
equal provision of specific public services to women and men and their access
hereto”129. The thematic plan is the first that stresses to that extent the importance of
women’s rights as well as the importance of preventing gender based violence and
specifically Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)130.

Moreover, the 2016 Annual Action Programme has a its first part dedicated to gender
equality and women’s rights protection. Specifically the programe states that
“[..]Contribute to the improvement of the situation of women in Egypt by advancing
women's rights. The specific objective of the project is to support the Government's
efforts towards abandoning Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) and to
strengthen women's access to justice and enforcement of law[..]131.

Lastly, in 2017, a 10 million grant was signed between Egypt and the Director General
of the European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Christian
Danielsson to promote gender equality in the country132. The grant will be distributed to
the NCW which in recent years fixed its relationship with the EU after a troubling past.

To move on to actors, the actors which were involved are the European Investment
Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for reconstruction and development (EBRD) 133 .
Those actors were the ones surrounding more controversy134. In the case of the EIB and
the EBRD they were both appointed as leaders of inclusive growth in the region in
March 2011 135 . However the EBRD was judged by the civil society for its lack of
efficiency while the EIB was criticized for its lack of experience in the Middle east and

129
European Union, “ANNEX 1 of the Commission implementing Decision on the Annual Action
Programme 2015 in favour of Egypt to be financed from the general budget of the European Union
Action Document for the “Citizen Rights Project””,2015.
130
Ibid
131
European Union, “ANNEX 1 of the Commission implementing Decision on the Annual Action
Programme 2016 (Part I) in favour of Egypt to be financed from the general budget of the European
Union
Action Document for “Advancing Women’s Rights in Egypt”
132
“Egypt-EU Sign €10 Million Grant Agreement to Promote Women’s Empowerment”, Egyptian Streets,
April 12 2017.
133
Bianchini S, opcit.
134
Ibid
135
Ibid

34
north Africa (MENA) region136. As far as EED is concerned the program was excessive
since the instrument could be easily incorporated into the EIDHR137.

However this time gender equality seemed more into the spotlight than previous years.
To begin with according to the PCD report, the EU highlighted the necessity to
mainstream issues in the areas of environment, climate immigration and gender138.

As far as gender equality is concerned it is clear that progress has been made regarding
funding. Taking into consideration the annual programs one can clearly see that in the
years of 2015 and 2016 along with the 10 million grant to the NCW, And all while
president Sisi named 2017 the year of women139. To conclude we can say that the EU’s
capability after the Arab Spring was strong.

136
Ibid
137
Ibid
138
Ibid
139
Egyptian streets, opcit.

35
4 Assessing Gender equality in Tunisia

4.1 EU-Tunisia relations

The EC Tunisia relationship is very similar to the one with in July 1969 when a
commercial agreement was signed for a period of five years, linking Tunisia to the
EEC 140 . The agreement was followed by a cooperation agreement in 1976 in the
framework of the “"global Mediterranean approach". However the substantial
relationship between the two parties begun with the conclusion of the Association
Agreement in 1995 which entered into force in 1998.141 Tunisia was the first country of
the Mediterranean to sign this agreement. The agreement established a free trade area
and, therefore, the elimination of tariffs, but only for trade in manufactured industrial
products142 and it is considered the legal basis for bilateral cooperation between the two
countries thus belonging in the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership in
which Tunisia joined in 1995 and as well as in the UfM in which Tunisia joined in
2008 143 . Nowadays relationships between the two parties are conducted in the ENP
framework and are bound by an action plans created in 2005.144

4.2 Assessing EU’s actorness in Tunisia prior to the Arab Spring

4.2.1 Opportunity

To begin with, in regards to the global institutional setting, Tunisia was considered the
best place for women in the MENA region. The reason is that Tunisia under Habib’s

140
European Institute of Research on Mediterranean and Euro-Arab relations, “EU-Tunisia relations”.
141
Ibid
142
« Les relations entre la Tunisie et l’Union Européenne » ALECA.
143
« Les relations entre l'Union européenne et la Tunisie : une coopération poussée mais fragilisée »,
Toute l’Europe, 19 Janvier 2011.
144
Ibid.

36
Bourguiba’s rule adopted the Personal Status Code (PSC). 145 The PSC aimed at
enhancing women’s rights in the country by integrating women’s rights into family law,
thus polygamy was abolished, equal divorce rights were provided to men and women,
marriages were required to be registered and child adoption was legalized 146 ,
additionally it also gave women freedom to create their own businesses, have a bank
account and the ability to have their own passports.147 The code is considered the most
progressive codified Islamic law148.

Free education was adopted by 1958 and compulsory education for men and women up
to the age of 16 was introduced in 1991 As far as social rights are concerned the Labour
Law of 1966 guaranteed women and men equal rights to employment149

Tunisia launched in 1991 a commission dedicated to integrating women in the

development planning, during the preparation of the VIIIth Socio-Economic
Development Plan.150 The program aimed at creating a “Commission for women and
development” in order to ease the path to gender equality policies and gender sensitive
budgeting. However the plan did not succeed, mostly due to the lack of financial and
human resources151.

Moreover in 1998 the "National Plan for the Promotion of Rural Women" was adopted
with the overall objective of the effective integration of rural women into the
development process152. The program consisted of 6 key areas: “The development of
women's human resources, Schooling qualifying training, literacy, health and
reproductive health, culture and recreation; Improving the living conditions of rural
women; Strengthening the contribution of rural women to family income; The
consolidation of the place and role of women in the agricultural sector; The
Improvement of the level of integration, coaching and provision of social services for

145
Sheiterbauer T, “Women’s Rights in the Aftermath of Tunisia’s Revolution: New Options and
Constraints for Women’s Activism in Processes of Transition” in Nikita Dhawan et al (eds.) Negotiating
Normativity,New York , Springer, 2016, p.152.
146
Gönül Şahin P., “Women's Liberties And. Gender Equality In. Tunisia: The Asthma Of The. Arab
Spring?” , Turkish Policy Quarterly, Winter issue 2013, 2013. P 163.
147
Sheiterbauer T, opcit
148
Ibid
149
Ben Amar Nihel , Euspring policy brief, Women’s Political Participation In Tunisia,2016, p4.
150
Union Europeene, « Raport de gendre national de la Tunisie » , Profil de genre 2014.
151
Ibid
152
Ibid

37
rural women; And strengthening the participation of rural women in community
development dynamics”153.

Following that in 2007, a cooperation project between the MAFFEPA-UNFPA / UNDP

and Tunisia was launched. The program was called “"Gender Mainstreaming and
Combating Gender-Based Violence" and aimed at strengthening the government's
gender equality policy and support the participation of Women in public and political
life and the fight against violence against women. The Program, which has had
successive extensions, has not been able to be carried out until the end and has passed to
the management of the gender training provided in collaboration with the Council of
Europe to SEFF gender focal points154.

Lastly, the National Strategy to Combat Violence against Women which was adopted in
2008 under the UNFPA / UN-Women / UNDP Cooperation Program and aims the
production of data on and the improvement and creation of appropriate services,
awareness-raising and the application of existing laws ensuring gender equality155.

In addition, the president asked women to drop the veil calling it “an odious rag” while
keep promoting women’s rights in the media all over the world.156

Moreover, two of the most influential Tunisian feminist organizations, The Association
of Tunisian Democratic women (ATFD) and the Centre of Arab Women Training and
Research (CAWTAR) ascended to prominence during the early 1990’s157. Their aim
was to safeguard women’s rights against the Islamist extremism, secure gender equality
and battle domestic violence158.

While not having the freedom to act freely women’s rights organizations enjoyed more
freedom than other civil society organizations159. Additionally the code of Nationality
was revised allowing women to pass their nationality to their children.160

153
Ibid
154
Ibid
155
Ibid
156
Tanja Sheiterbauer, opcit, p.155
157
Marks Monica, “Women’s Rights before and after the Revolution”, in The Making of the Tunisian
Revolution: Contexts, Architects, Prospects, ed. Nouri Gana. Edinburgh University Press , 2013, p.5.
158
Ibid
159
Ibid
160
Pelin Gönül Şahin, opcit,

38
Thus, we can conclude that the global institutional setting was strong for the EU to act.
Moreover also the norm and interest constellation and cleavages was also strong as both
Tunisia and the EU recognized the importance of gender equality.

4.2.2 Presence

Again EU’s presence in gender equality matters before the Arab Spring wasn’t very
strong. Taking the Association agreements of 1995 there is no single mention of gender
equality, or women’s rights. Moving to the EU-Tunisia action plan, that was agreed for
the period of 2005 until 2013 aimed at “deepening political dialogue, trade liberalization
and economic, social, cultural and financial cooperation, supporting democratic reforms
and good governance, enhancing sartorial cooperation, implementing poverty
alleviation measures and developing people-to-people contacts” 161 While in the 79
measures in the action plan covering six areas of cooperation, gender equality was not a
priority. In the action plan there is only one mention of gender equality under the
Cooperation on social policy and employment, which states that “Pursue the dialogue
on employment and social policy so as to develop a joint analysis of the situation and
identify challenges and possible measures to deal with them [...](social gender
equality[..]including support for Tunisian policies on reducing social inequalities [..]”162

Thus we can conclude that there are not many long-standing policies or agreements that
promote gender equality in Tunisia, fact that restrains the EU’s presence in the country
despite the strong legal acquis of the Union.

4.2.3 Capability

In the period before the launch of the ENP (1995 to 2006) , the sum of the financial aid
from the EU to Tunisia amounted to 1 billion in grants given through the MEDA
programmes and 2 billion in loans.163

161
European Parliament, “Directorate General for external policies, policy department, EU policies in
Tunisia before and After the revolution”, 2016.
162
European Union, “Action Plan adopted between the Republic of Tunisia and the European Union”,
2005.
163
Ibid

39
The total amount of resources allocated to Tunisia under the NIP for the period 2007-
2010 was EUR 330 million, mostly assigned to economic programs, such as economic
governance, competitiveness and convergence with the EU, sustainable development
and improved graduate employability , with none of them mentioning gender equality
and no actors involved with gender issues164.

To sum up we can see that although the EU’s funding is generous and aim at the
development of the country, the financial instruments do not aim at promoting gender
equality and neither do the EU’s financial policies 165 . Thus we can say that EU’s
financial instruments as well as the policy and agreements objectives are weak when it
comes to gender equality, therefore EU’s capability in the area is restricted and weak.166

4.3 Assessing gender equality in Tunisia post Arab Spring

4.3.1 Opportunity

To begin with the global institutional setting, during the Arab Spring, women were a
pivotal actor in the demonstrations and just like their male counterparts fought for
justice human rights and democratization. During the revolution activists as well as
NGO’s expressed their worrying for women’s rights in the country and they tried to
maintain the presence of women in all aspects of life after the revolution 167 .
Specifically, the association of Tunisia Democratic Women (ATFD) tried to use its
influence to demand electoral parity.168 They required that candidate lists for the 2011

164
Ibid
165
European Parliament, Directorate-General for internal policies, Policy department C, “citizens rights
and Constitutional affairs”,opcit.
166
Ibid
167
Baker V., “The Role of Civil Society in the Tunisian Democratic Transition, Master’s thesis,
Colorado, University of Colorado”, 2015, p 56.
168
Ibid

40
National Constituent Assembly must alternate between men and women, making half of
the candidates of any party female and half of them male169

Additionally women’s organizations played the role of the mediator uniting women
with different ideological lines, since there is a vast majority of women which disagrees
fundamentally on the role of women in society, having a more outdated view of women.
That’s when women’s organizations stepped in trying to focus the debate on issues that
unite the majority of women instead of the perceived Islamist/secularist battle170.

Moreover the parliament following the upheavals, moved to the adoption of a new
constitution which prioritizes women’s rights in its articles171. The constitution calls for
equal rights amongst its citizens male or female “have equal rights and duties, and are
equal before the law without any discrimination. The state guarantees to citizens, male
and female, individual and collective rights, and provides them with conditions for a
dignified life.” 172 Moreover the constitution also ensures the full political rights for
women by stating that “The rights to election, voting, and candidacy are guaranteed, in
accordance with the law. The state seeks to guarantee women’s representation in elected
councils.”173 Furthermore the constitution urges that “the state commits to protecting
women’s achieved rights and seeks to support and develop them. The state seeks to
achieve equal representation for women and men in elected councils (parity). The state
takes the necessary measures to eliminate violence against women.”174

While on April 23 2014, Tunisia also lifted most of the opt outs made when ratifying
the support of the CEDAW.175

The contribution of the inclusion of gender equality and women’s rights articles in the
constitution was also pursued by women’s civil society organizations176

Furthermore, various NGO’s outside from the thematic of gender equality partnered
with women’s rights organizations to fight against women’s inequalities, for instance
The Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH) and the Tunisian National Order of
Lawyers (ONAT), organized demonstrations for women’s rights and joined in direct

169
Ibid
170
Ibid
171
Interview with Marina MARTINEZ ABOY, EEAS official on 03/05/17
172
TN const 2014, Art. 21.
173
Ibid Art. 34
174
Ibid Art. 46.
175
Ben Amar Nihel, opcit.
176
Baker Veronica,opcit

41
negotiations with legislative representatives177. This alliance strengthened the women’s
place in the society and enforced even further the women’s rights in the constitution.

What is more, The EU since the Arab Spring is actively engaging with all the civil
society organizations178. The EU considers the civil society organizations as “antennas”
in the region and cooperates with them in order to gain valuable field information. The
EU Delegation is currently responsible for over 70 projects, worth €58.5 million, funded
by the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), the Non State
Actors programme (NSA), the Civil Society Facility and ENPI/ENI instruments179

As far as the interest /norm constellation is concerned given the above analysis, it is
evident that Tunisia was in line with EU’s views of gender equality more or less, while
the EU and Tunisia did share the same interests in promoting gender equality.

Therefore, we can conclude that the Global Institutional setting was strong and coherent
and gave place to the EU to act in helping with gender equality issues in the country.
Moreover the global interest/norm constellation and cleavages also aligned as Tunisia’s
reforms in terms of gender matched EU’s values of gender equality and women’s rights.

4.3.2 Presence

The EU in Tunisia has a longstanding presence of polices and agreements aiming at

promoting gender equality. Right after the Arab Spring the EU’s primary goal was to
promote gender equality in the country including women’s rights.

To begin with, the EU in 2012 launched the program aimed at reducing inequalities in
the access to healthcare. In the program there were several provisions on women such as
the emergency transport for women especially in the case of childbirth, the calling for

177
Norbakk, Mari. "The Women’S Rights Champion. Tunisia’S Potential For Furthering Women’S
Rights, Michelsen Institute, 2016.
178
Interview with Marina MARTINEZ ABOY, EEAS official, 03/05/2017
179
European Comission, Tunisia - European Neighborhood policy and enlargement negotiations .

42
health research to define women’s needs and special care for women especially when it
comes to chronicle illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension180.

What is more in 2014 the Program for gender equality promotion was also launched
within the strategic partnership framework of 2013-2017. The program among other
things includes aims at the promotion The implementation of the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW), eliminate all
social economic and political discriminations as well as battle gender based violence
and empower civil society in the promotion of gender equality matters181.

Additionally, of the biggest programs between the EU and Tunisia in gender equality
promotion was launched for the period 2015-2018. The program is called “« Promotion
de l’égalité femmes hommes en Tunisie » and it has an overall budget of 7 million
euros, and it it’s directed by the Ministry of Woman, Family and Childhood (MFFE)182.
Its main goal is to It aims to strengthen the capacity of state and non-state actors in
gender mainstreaming at the national, regional and local levels. 183 The program also
aims to improve the participation of women in Tunisian economic and public life.184
Lastly the program also has open calls for proposals aiming to enhance women's
entrepreneurship and women's participation in governance185

Furthermore, under the 2015 annual action program there is the "Regional Initiative for
Sustainable Economic Development (RISED)" which aims to contribute to the
enhancement of the employability of women and men in Tunisia by strengthening the
contribution of the private sector in terms of development, particularly at the local level,
by improving supply Training and support services186.

180
Fiche action pour la Tunisie, « Projet d'appui à la réduction des inégalités sociales et aux services de
soins de santé de première ligne et intermédiaire dans les régions défavorisées en Tunisie »,
ENPI/2011/023-522
181
Union Européenne, « Rapport 2015 coopération de l’union Européenne en Tunisie », 2015.
182
Ibid
183
Ibid
184
Ibid
185
Ibid
186
Commission Européenne, « Décision D’exécution De La Commission du 30.7.2015 relative au
programme d’action annuel 2015 en faveur de la Tunisie partie I à financer sur le budget général de
l'Union européenne », Bruxelles le 30.7.2015 C(2015) 5527 final.

43
What is more Tunisia is also benefiting from the program “Transforming the Lives of
Girls and Women through EU External Relations for the period of 2016-2020”187.

The program aims to fight against any form of violence against women, the economic
empowerment of women, strengthening women’s participation and voice and shifting
the institutional culture188

In the 2016, thematic program for health sector gender equality is also one of the focal
points as the plan was stressing the importance of equal treatment between men and
women189

In addition the EU calls civil society organizations to submit their contribution for the
preparation of the EU-Tunisia sub-committees and also to provide their knowledge to
the relevant programming documents and policy papers, fact that also enhances
women’s status as the EU is closely associating with various civil society organizations
dedicated to gender such as the Centre de Recherche, des Etudes de documentation et
Information sur les Femmes (CREDIF)190

Lastly, Tunisia is now involved in twenty-two regional projects under the coordination
of the UfM Secretariat and worth in total more than EUR 1.2 billion. Seven of these
projects are dedicated in promoting gender equality , specifically targeting the role of
women and youth in society191.

Hence, we can see that EU’s presence in Tunisia is strong with longstanding effective
programs fact that allows the EU to further engage in the area and help in gender
equality promotion.

4.3.3 Capability.

The EU for the period of 2007-2013 assisted Tunisia with 775 million, under
the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI)192.

187
European Commission, Press Release, “New Framework For Gender Equality And Women's
Empowerment: Transforming The Lives Of Girls And Women Through EU External Relations” (2016-
2020) Adopted.
188
Ibid
189
European Commission ,Tunisia - European Neighbourhood Policy And Enlargement Negotiations
190
European Parliament, Directorate-General for internal policies, Policy department C., “citizens’ rights
and Constitutional affairs”, opcit.
191
Commission ,Tunisia - European Neighbourhood Policy And Enlargement Negotiations
192
Ibid

44
As it was mentioned above from 2011 onwards significant attention has been given to
civil society organizations including gender equality organizations.

Thus Tunisia’s civil society is majorly supported by the EIDHR in launching several
programs193.

To begin with the first program the “prevention of gender-based violence and
accompanying women victims in the northwest Tunisian for the period of 2013-2016”
the program has a budget of 550,000 euro. The project was carried out by the National
Office for Families and Population (ONFP), the Association of Women and Citizenship
(AFC) and the Spanish Foundation CIDEAL. The program by coordinating actors of
civil society aimed at helping and welcoming abused women in Kef, Beja and
Jendouba. The program also aimed at raising awareness of the problem of gender based
violence through campaigning194.

Another program under the EIDHR is the promoting equality in the workplace for
women and men in Tunisia for the period of 2014-2016. The program was under the
management of Fondation contre l'exclusion (FACE) in partnership with the
Association of Trainers and Human Resource Managers in Enterprises
(ARFORGHE)195. The programs funding was 240000 euro and foresaw the equality in
the workplace through awareness of the issue and through supporting women towards
professional integration196. The initiative organised trainings targeting the local actors in
order to firstly fight preconceptions related to gender in the workplace and secondly to
show to other women the importance of the labor market and their need for participation
in it. This project was operating in Tunis, Bizerte, Ben Arous, Sfax and Sidi Bouzid197

The project "KARAMA - Dignity" was developed under the partnership established
between the British Council and the Tunisian Management and Social Stability Program
(TAMSS). The program operated from 2014 until 2015 and had an overall budget of
210.000198. Amongst its objectives is to support the democratic transition In Tunisia
through the increased representation of civil society in the promotion and protection of

193
Union Européenne, « Rapport 2015 coopération de l’union Européenne en Tunisie », 2015.
193
Ibid
194
Ibid
194
Ibid
195
Ibid
196
Ibid
197
Ibid
198
Ibid

45
the rights of women in disadvantaged areas. Moreover it aimed at promoting women's
participatory citizenship, as well as to strengthen respect for their dignity and security.
Six local associations in Gafsa, Kairouan, Sousse, Sfax and Ariana have become
partners.199

Furthermore, the project for preventing sexual violence for children and especially girls
for the period of 2014-2016 with a budget of 229,000 euro200. The program was co-
executed by the Women and Leadership Association and the Association for the
Defence of the Rights of the Child, this project has as objectives to is to help raise
awareness of the phenomenon of sexual violence in the family, educational
institutions.201

Lastly, a project dedicated to the awareness of Tunisian students for the preservation of
women's rights and better understanding of the patriarchal model for the period of 2014-
2016202. The program was financed by the EIDHR with 300.000 euro. The project was
being operated by the Tunisia “association Images et Paroles de femmes” which aims to
promote gender equality and women's rights in Tunisia with film projections
accompanied by debates with students203. In Many of the debates in the university halls
all over the country were attended by lawyers, human rights activists, sociologists,
psychologists, educators and policy-makers from the Ministry of Higher Education,
raising awareness in about 20,000 students in total204. During the first year, the debates
highlighted a low level of citizen awareness, as well as resistance however the program
changed its age range and was available for a younger age group from 15 to 19 which
allowed the program to be extended by six months until August 2016205

As it was mentioned above the EU Delegation is currently responsible for over 70

projects, worth €58.5 million, which are funded by European Instrument for Democracy
and Human Rights (EIDHR), the Non State Actors programme (NSA), the Civil Society
Facility and ENPI/ENI instruments. Moreover regular call for proposals is being held in
order to cover different programmes and sectors of intervention.206

199
Ibid
200
Ibid
201
Ibid
202
Ibid
203
Ibid
204
Ibid
205
Ibid
206
European Commission, Tunisia - European Neighborhood Policy And Enlargement Negotiations.

46
A specific Programme to Support Civil Society (PASC) worth €7 million has recently
come to an end. The program envisioned the support for the creation of civil society
organization in order to contribute to the development and democratic transition of the
country. The program also enhanced the dialogue and consultation between civil society
and public actors, making recommendations for legislative reviews. While Gender
equality was under the programs priorities according to the EU207.

Additionally the EU co-funded the creation of the Jamaity.org platform in 2014 which
aims at bringing more than 1600 Tunisian civil society organizations under one website.
In the platform which provides valuable information on geo-localization on projects,
resources, events, funding opportunities, documents and tools many gender equality
NGO’s found a roof.208

Furthermore, the 2014 report for gender equality shows that apart from the EU as a
whole also Member states helped in enhancing gender equality issues in the country the
form of bilateral cooperation209. A few examples to that is, the support for women's
entrepreneurship by Italy, Switzerland, Finland, AECID, and European Union. The
women's economic empowerment and enhancement of their economic role backed by
Germany, GIZ, France , Italy, Finland, Denmark, Spain, Netherlands, and the European
Union. The access to and service integration of single mothers and survivors supported
by Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Oxfam, Netherlands, European
Union The women's empowerment in natural resource management and the
environment sustained by Germany, European Union , the women's participation in
public life supported by France, European Union, Australia – and lastly the access to
education enhanced bt France, European Union210.

Closing, it is evident that EU’s capability is strong during the period since the EU has
sufficient financial instruments aimed at financing the progress of gender equality in the
country , moreover it has objectives again aiming at gender equality promotion and
lastly the EU’s member states also participate in bilateral cooperation in order to
promote gender related issues fact that enhances even more the EU’s capability in the
country.

207
European Union, Texts Adopted, “EU Relations With Tunisia In The Current Regional Context,
Wednesday”, 14 September 2016 , P8_Ta(2016)0345
208
European Commission, TUNISIA, opcit.
209
EEAS "Profil Genre De La Tunisie 2014 - Commission Européenne".
210
Ibid

47
5 Assessing the status of gender equality in Egypt and
Tunisia

After analyzing the EU’s promotion of gender equality in the respective countries, I will
now move forward with assessing the status of gender equality in the two countries, in
order to do so I will use the three criteria I presented in my methodology: The economic
opportunity, educational atainment, and the political empowerment, to do so , I will use
the same timeline of before-after the Arab Spring as I did above.

5.1 Gender equality status in Egypt

5.1.1 Economic opportunity

The above table shows the Egypt female labor force participation for the period
of 1990 until 2014 As the global economy website states “The average value for Egypt
during that period was 21.31 percent with a minimum of 18.3 percent in 2002 and
a maximum of 25.8 percent in 1990”211. For 2015 and 2016 the percentages are 22.763
and 22.927. From the above table and concerning the period prior to the Arab Spring
we can see that the percentage of women in the workforce was slowly declining up until
2006 where a gradual decline can be noted in the period of the Arab spring however this
can be explained from the economic crises the upheavals of the Arab Spring brought, as
businesses dismissed some workers to reduce costs and according to Amirah El-Haddad
an economics professor in the university of Cairo, the people who were dismissed from
the various work places were mostly women 212 . In addition according to a Social
Research Centre at the American University of Cairo, concerning the period of 2001-
2007 , women in the official labour market made up only 19% of the total labour force

211
The global economy, "Egypt Female Labor Force Participation” - Data, Chart.
212
Mounir Safiaa "Will New Egyptian Employment Law Help Its Women Lean In?”. Al-Monitor,
November 3, 2015.

48
in Egypt while the rate is even lower for the private sector as it was only 16% compared
with 26% in the public sector during the same period213.

Right after the Arab Spring, according to the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap
Report for 2012, Egypt ranks 126th out of 135 countries on the gender gap index, and
ranks 130th out of 135 in labour force participation. The female-to-male employment
ratio at the time was 0.3, as female labour force participation at the time was 24% while
it was 79% for males214

Moreover, according to a 2013 survey by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization
and Statistics (CAPMAS), The unemployment rate for women in Egypt is more than
double that for men as women's unemployment reached 24% in 2013, compared with
9.8% for men.

As it is not mentioned in the above charter the percentage of women’s participation in

the work force for the years 2015 and 2016 was 22.763 and 22.927 respectively, which
is considered very low given the fact that women make up for more than half of the
Egyptian population. Lastly for 2016, and according to the World Economic Forum’s
Gender Gap Report Egypt ranks 132 out 144 countries. Therefore we can conclude that
the overall economic opportunity of Egyptian woman is weak.

5.1.2 Educational attainment

The overall literacy level in Egypt is moderate; however there is a significant gap
between men and women. According to a CAPMAS study approximately 37% of the
woman population is illiterate compared to the 22% percent of men. Moreover only
52% of women hold a school degree (elementary or beyond) compared with 63% of
men215 Egyptian women have suffered a decline in their education level as Egypt came
in the 115th place out of 142 countries in 2015, while it ranked 109th rank among 142
countries according to Global Gender Index reports of 2015 and 2014.216

213
Ibid
214
Ibid
215
Ibid
216
The Egyptian Center for Women's Rights (ECWR), "Egyptian Women’S Status Report 2015",2015.

49
According to the Gender Global Gap report in 2015, female literacy rate is at 65%,
female enrolment in primary education is at 96%, while female enrolment in secondary
education is at 85%, and female enrolment in higher education is at 31%

While a more recent study of 2015 by CAPMAS showed that about 14,5 million people
in Egypt are illiterate from which 9.3 million are females217. Thus we can conclude that
even if some progress is shown the overall educational attainment of women in Egypt is
weak.

5.2 Political empowerment

In 2008 Egypt in the report of the International Parliamentary Union on Women’s

Status ranked in the 134th place in women’s participation in parliament out of 188
countries218 while in 2012 there were only eight women out of 508 MPs – less than 2%,
and down from the previous 12%219, of the quota period.

More recently, and specifically in 201t elections, The final results for all the stages of
the electoral process indicated the presence of 89 female MP, 75 are elected MPs and 14
are appointed, out of a total of 596 MP, amounting to 14.7%220, which makes the 2015
parliament the most ‘female friendly” parliament in Egyptian history. However the
numbers are still very low since the country was placed in the 128th place out of 135
countries in 2013, to 134th place in 2014 and to 136th place in 2015 based on the
statistics of the Global Gender Gap index which were published by the World Economic
Forum in 2013, 2014, and 2015221.Lastly in 2016 in the new ministerial cabinet, only 3
women were appointed Ministers in out of 34 Ministries, amounting to 8.8 % 222 .
Therefore overall also the political empowerment of women in Egypt is also weak.

217
Al-Youm Al-Masry "Illiteracy In Egypt Stood At 14.5 Million In 2015: CAPMAS” , Egypt
Independent, 7 September 2016.
218
The Egyptian Center for Women's Rights (ECWR), "Egyptian Women’s Status Report 2008", 2008.
219
Mariz T. "To Politically Empower Women On A Global Scale We Need More Than Quotas, The
Guardian, 8 March 2012.
220
Nehad Abol-Komsan, "Egyptian Women In 2015 Parliamentary Elections", The Egyptian Centre for
Women's Rights (ECWR), 17 February 2016.
221
World economic forum, The Global Gap Report 2015.
222
The Egyptian Center for Women's Rights, opcit, 2008.

50
5.3 Gender equality status in Tunisia

5.3.1 Economic opportunity

To begin with women’s participation in the labor market, we can see that a significant
progress has been made in the period between 1990 and 2010, as women’s
representation as a percentage of the total labour force has risen from 20.8% to
25.3%.223 “While Government data indicate that the number of women actively seeking
work in Tunisia multiplied by 2.65 from 1994 to 2002. A comparison with male job
applications shows that women represented 33.36% of job seekers in 1994 and 43.3% in
2002”224 Today 26% of women participate in the labour force225.

5.3.2 Educational attainment

Tunisia is also considered the success story of promoting educational attainment

amongst women, as Tunisia after its independence has given significant importance in
female education. From 1994 until today the gender gap in education has almost been
abolished. In 2004 the rates of youth literacy were 96.4 for males and 92,24 for females
there was only a small decline for both genders in 2012 which can be explained by the
situation in the country but in 2015 the rates were almost the same for both genders
98.10 for males and 96.66 for females226.

223
Overseas Development Institute, Victoria Chambers, Clare Cummings, Building
Momentum Women’s empowerment in Tunisia, November 2014.
224
Ibid
225
Data.worldbank.org , Labor force, female (% of total labor force)
226
Knoema.Comm “Tunisia Literacy Youth Female Illiteracy”, 1976-2017.

51
5.3.3 Political empowerment

To begin with according to IPU for 2008, Tunisia had the highest female
proportion in the region, with a 23 percent female share of parliamentary seats, which
was indeed low but certainly a lot given the area 227 . Following that in the first
transitional period of 2011-2014, women were represented approximately in the same
percentage as in the period before the Arab Spring. While in the second election terms
the government appointed more women as ministers thus three female ministers were
appointed for culture, tourism and women as well as five secretaries of state 228 .
Moreover Tunisia agreed upon a gender equality bill, for the local elections in which
50% of local council seats must be occupied by women, consequently the women’s
political empowerment is strong229.

5.4 Overall in-country assessment

All in all, from the above analysis we can conclude that even before the Arab Spring
women in Tunisia were far more advanced in gender equality matters, as economic
opportunity, political empowerment and educational attainment were in far better
situation for women in Tunisia than for women in Egypt. Therefore now by conducting
the above analysis we have a general –and more objective- scope of about the gender
equality situation in each country , therefore we can now move to the overall
comparison part.

227
Mona lena krook, “Gender Quotas in Parliament: A Global View” in Gender Quotas and Parliamentary
Representation, Al Raida Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World, issue 126-127 Summer/Fall
2009.
228
Ben Amarm Nihel, opcit, P.7.
229
Interview with Marina MARTINEZ ABOY, EEAS official, 03/05/2017

52
6 Comparison

In this chapter after assessing both the EU’s promotion of gender equality but also the
status of women in the respective countries, I will know move to the comparison part of
the Thesis. In this part my aim is to merge my findings from both previous analyses and
draw conclusions and finally answer to my research questions. The comparison part will
also be divided in two periods using the actorness components and the gender equality
assessment criteria analysed above. To make the analysis more comprehensible I have
attached two tables which sum up my findings for the EU’s actorness and a table which
sums up my findings for the status of gender equality in each country

C
O
M
P ANALYTICAL UNITS/ GENDER EQUALITY PROMOTION in
O
N THEMES Egypt before and after the Arab Spring.
E
N
T
OPPORTUNITY (“external environment”, “structural context of EU action” - Bretherton and
Vogler 2006: 24)
Assessing EU’s opportunity in the area of Gender Equality
Strong >< weak
in Egypt
Global Strong >< weak, Before the Arab Spring: WEAK
institutional coherent vs.
setting fragmented After the Arab Spring: WEAK
Global
Multipolar vs. Before the Arab Spring: WEAK
interest/norm
unipolar, North vs.
constellation South etc. After the Arab Spring: WEAK
and cleavages
EU PRESENCE (capacity “by virtue of its existence, to exert influence beyond its borders”: key
characteristics of EU in a given domain - Bretherton & Vogler 2006: 24)
Assesing EU’s presence in the area of Gender Equality in
Strong >< weak
Egypt
Long-standing Before the Arab Spring; WEAK
History of
vs. recent
policies & development,
agreements milestones After the Arab Spring; STRONG

Legal acquis Strong >< weak STRONG

EU CAPABILITY (“the internal context of EU external action” - Bretherton & Vogler 2006: 29)

53
 Strong >< weak Assessing EU’s capability in the area of Gender Equality in
(in light of below components) Egypt

Instruments, Before the Arab Spring: WEAK

funding, Strong vs. weak
budget After the Arab Spring: STRONG

Policy/agreem Explicit vs. implicit Before the Arab Spring: WEAK

ent objectives external objectives After the Arab Spring: MODERATE
Actors,
procedure Actors, procedure Before the Arab Spring: WEAK
(internal, (internal, external) After the Arab Spring: MODERATE
external
EU ACTORNESS IN TOTAL
Strong >< weak
(in light of opportunity, MODERATE
presence, actorness)

Table 1: EU's overall actorness

C
O
M
P ANALYTICAL UNITS/ GENDER EQUALITY PROMOTION in
O
N THEMES Tunisia before and after the Arab Spring.
E
N
T
OPPORTUNITY (“external environment”, “structural context of EU action” - Bretherton and
Vogler 2006: 24)
Assessing EU’s opportunity in the area of Gender Equality in
Strong >< weak
Tunisia
Global Strong >< weak, Before the Arab Spring: STRONG
institutional coherent vs.
setting fragmented After the Arab Spring: STRONG
Global
Multipolar vs. Before the Arab Spring: STRONG
interest/norm
unipolar, North vs.
constellation South etc. After the Arab Spring: STRONG
and cleavages
EU PRESENCE (capacity “by virtue of its existence, to exert influence beyond its borders”: key
characteristics of EU in a given domain - Bretherton & Vogler 2006: 24)
Strong ><
Assesing EU’s presence in the area of Gender Equality in Tunisia
weak
Long-standing Before the Arab Spring; WEAK
History of
vs. recent
policies & development,
agreements milestones After the Arab Spring; STRONG
Legal acquis Strong >< weak STRONG

54
EU CAPABILITY (“the internal context of EU external action” - Bretherton & Vogler 2006: 29)
Strong ><
weak
(in light of Assessing EU’s capability in the area of Gender Equality in Tunisia
below
components)

Instruments, Before the Arab Spring: WEAK

funding, Strong vs. weak
budget After the Arab Spring: STRONG

Policy/agree Before the Arab Spring: WEAK

Explicit vs. implicit
ment external objectives
objectives After the Arab Spring: STRONG
Actors,
procedure Actors, procedure Before the Arab Spring: WEAK
(internal, (internal, external) After the Arab Spring: STRONG
external
EU ACTORNESS IN TOTAL
Strong >< weak Before the Arab Spring: MODERATE
(in light of opportunity,
presence, actorness)
After the Arab Spring: STRONG
Source: Damro and Schunz ,External aspects of EU’s internal policies, College of Europe.

Table 2: In-country gender equality assessment

In-country gender equality assessment

Country Economic Educational Political
Empowerment attainment representation

Egypt WEAK WEAK WEAK

Tunisia STRONG STRONG STRONG

6.1.1 EU’s Overall opportunity comparison In Egypt and Tunisia

To begin with Egypt, in the period prior to the Arab Spring women’s actions were
majorly limited, while women in Tunisia were considered the most privileged in the
MENA region. Moving on, the Ngo’s and civil society organizations in Egypt were

55
restricted and needed authorization to act fact that was also enhanced by the personal
status law while also some Ngo’s and civil society organizations in Tunisia were
restricted, women’s associations were more free to act. Therefore in Tunisia there were
a number Ngo’s aiming to fight for women’s rights and their voices were not silenced.
Moreover, in Egypt personal status law was in force which allowed men to practically
treat women as property, giving them absolute rights over them even allowing men to
divorce women without justification when in the case of women justification was
needed. In Tunisia however this wasn’t the case, the PSC was enforced which enhanced
family law and granted women divorce and child rights while it banned polygamy and
also the code of nationality was revised allowing women to pass their nationality to
their children. Moreover in Egypt the only body that was aiming for gender equality
was the NCW which of course wasn’t the right choice as it was directed by the former
president’s wife Suzanne, the NCW surrounded much controversy at the time, since it
was accused for not being informed enough about women’s struggles in essential
sectors, such as female agricultural participation. While in Tunisia the government was
constantly creating programs aiming to promote gender equality, empower women and
enhance women’s participation in the society.

During the Arab Spring upheavals but also during the transition period, women were a
pivotal actor in both countries fighting, demonstrating caring for the wounded,
undeniably being of the same importance as men. However the state of women
following the Arab Spring in the respective countries had significant differences. To
start with Egypt, as it was mentioned beforehand, the Arab Spring found the union
unprepared on how to act which showed that the EU was not sufficiently engaged with
civil society in order to listen to the problems of the country in order to know how to act
and modify its polices, however this wasn’t only the fault of the EU, it was also the fault
of the civil societies themselves, as they didn’t want to engage with any global actor
especially the EU. Moreover a law was adopted which restricted Ngo’s functions by
prosecuting and implementing travel bans on women activists. While in the case of
Tunisia the EU did cooperate with civil society organizations and used them as sources
in order to adopt its policies accordingly. At the same time in Tunisia the setting was
completely different. Ngo’s in the country tried to protect the existing freedoms of
women while also pushing for more such as electoral parity etc. and played the role of

56
mediators in united the divided country. All that pushing resulted to the adoption of a
new constitution which puts in the spotlight women’s rights. Moreover Tunisia lifted
almost all its bans in reference to the CEDAW something that Egypt has not done yet.

Moreover the EU and Egypt might have had shared interests throughout their
relationship however those interests were not in the direction of gender equality while
this wasn’t the case for Tunisia. In Egypt the EU was mostly interested in the
industrialisation and modernisation of the country and not gender equality promotion
while after the upheavals of 2011 Egypt is considered of pivotal geographical position
for the EU thus the EU’s interest in the area is firstly security and then human rights fact
that Egypt takes advantage of to keep neglecting women’s rights.

In the case of Tunisia even though serious progress has been made , challenges are still
ahead and that is also the case for Tunisia regardless of its advanced status of gender
equality. Tunisia was without a doubt a more women friendly country ever since its
independence, as it had programs and laws securing women’s status , civil society
organizations etc. However there were cases were the laws and policies were not
implemented especially in rural areas nevertheless the laws and policies still gave the
EU the base to function and promote gender equality in the country

All in all we can conclude by saying that the EU’s opportunity in the case of Egypt was
weak both prior and post Arab Spring while in the case of Tunisia the EU’s opportunity
was strong in both periods. The reason behind this difference is that first of all Egypt
was not a very approachable country in terms of gender equality , especially in the past
given the fact that the country’s law is strongly related to Muslim religion also both the
EU and Egypt didn’t not prioritise gender equality in their relationship. While for the
case of Tunisia, the EU had a ground to work on, the conditions were better thus the
unions presence was not restricted.

57
6.1.2 EU’s overall presence comparison, in Egypt and Tunisia

To begin with, in Egypt EU’s presence was certainly weak as the lack of gender
equality in the EU-Egypt agreements was evident. The association agreement had only
one very vague mention of human rights and no single mention of gender equality. The
same goes for Tunisia’s agreement which again had no single mention of gender
equality or women’s rights what so ever. Moving to the UfM also gender equality was
again not taken into consideration while as it was mentioned above the UfM was
presented by Hosni Mumbarak. Moving to the ENP in the first action plan of Egypt
there was indeed a mention of gender equality and children’s rights under the priorities
of actions section but again gender equality was not a priority. The same goes for the
case of Tunisia as there was a gender equality mention but again gender equality was
not the focal point. While in the case of Egypt policy did not meet practice as the 2008
report stated that gender equality has not improved in the country while this wasn’t the
case for Tunisia since the same report states that Tunisia was “Participating actively in
the ENP. In the area of democracy and human rights’’230.

Moving to the post Arab Spring period, in the case of Egypt the EU given the events in
the country uncertain on how to tackle the situation, and it was the same uncertainty that
passed into its gender policies. In the case of Tunisia regime situation was more settled
therefore the EU prioritized gender equality promotion in the country, something that
didn’t happen in Egypt at least not in the same degree as in Tunisia.

To begin with the common ENP revisions which include both countries the first
response Partnership for democracy and Shared Prosperity with the southern
Mediterranean women’s rights were only mentioned once while in its third response ‘’A
new response to a changing Neighbourhood’’ there was also only one mention

Moving to the one to the bilateral agreements and the annual action programs , As far as
Egypt is concerning in the 2014 Annual Action Program had no mention of gender
equality same applies for the thematic reports. In 2015 the Annual Action program

230
Commission of the European communities, “Communication from the commission to the European
parliament and the council implementation of the European neighbourhood policy in 2008”, Brussels,
23/04/2009 com(2009) 188/3.

58
mentions gender equality and has placed it under the thematic report of ‘’citizens’ rights
project’’. As for 2016, it can be considered the year which finally put gender equality
into focus. While in 2017 a budget dedicated to gender equality has been given to the
NCW.

In the case of Tunisia, things were certainly better in terms of EU-Tunisia Cooperation.
From 2012 onwards the EU and Tunisia were launching various programs aiming at
safeguarding gender equality and women’s rights in all aspects of their partnership from
action programs to thematic programs gender was somehow present in their policies.

All in all we can conclude that in the case of Egypt EU’s presence was overall moderate
and for Tunisia EU’s presence was strong. The first thing that one can observe is the
lack of gender based policies prior to the Arab Spring. This can be explained given the
fact that both countries were under the rule of authoritarian regimes and law based on
religion. One can assume that it was the Arab Spring that changed everything and gave
the EU ground to act. However we must not forget that gender equality in Tunisia
existed to an important degree even prior to the Arab Spring while this wasn’t the case
for Egypt fact that also made the EU’s job to act in the area even harder. Egypt had the
need to create gender equality in the country while in Tunisia the need was to safe guard
the existing rights and enhance them. Lastly we must take into consideration the results
of the Arab Spring, as in the first case Tunisia was considered a success story, while
Egypt was not and has struggled way too much to gain democracy while for Tunisia
things were much better.

6.1.3 EU’s overall capability comparison in Egypt and Tunisia

Prior to the Arab Spring, the two programs which were responsible for funding the
neighbourhood countries the MEDA and the ENPI. In the case of Egypt The MEDA did
not have a very efficient performance regarding gender equality as the program only
offered some funds aiding women in the economic sphere in Egypt. As far as the ENP is
concerned which was the instrument that introduced the more for more approach, was
harshly criticized for not including less for less, when human rights and therefore
women’s rights were keep being violated while the EU kept financing Egypt. Fact that
shows once more that gender equality promotion was not in the EU’s priorities in the

59
region. As for the case of Tunisia there were no financial instruments nor actors aimed
at promoting gender equality even though the overall funding for the country was very
generous.

Moving to the period after the Arab Spring, there is a definite gap between the two
countries in terms of EU’s capability. The first ENP reform New response to a changing
Neighbourhood included the UfM however other instruments were also created such as
the EED and the Support for Partnership, SPRING program. These instruments had
somehow some reference to women nevertheless none of them put women into the
spotlight of their policies. Also the actors involved were judged for their lack of
efficiency

In Egypt the years that made much difference were 2015 and 2016 as gender equality
was a priority in the funding policies additionally the EU has funded the NCW with 10
million euros aiming women’s empowerment. As for Tunisia the EU has focused in
funding civil society organizations while also launching several bilateral programs with
Tunisia in order to enhance gender equality in the country while also the EU delegation
in the country has an active role in gender equality promotion and reporting. Lastly the
EIDHR has been a major supported in funding various civil society programs m
something that is not applicable in the case of Egypt. Although, we can say in the case
of Egypt that in post Arab Spring period the EU was more willing to support gender
equality and include gender policies in its instruments, therefore we can say that the
financial instruments are sufficient enough to achieve their goals while referring to
Policy and agreement objectives we can say that there are few objectives aiming to
promote gender equality in recent years and the same goes in the case of actors

All in all we can characterize the overall EU capability as strong in both countries.
However the ENP instruments were deeply criticised for not having clear cut objectives
since they were created around this idea of holistic materialism meaning that systems
should be viewed as wholes and not individually. This holistic materialism led to having
a one size fits all models which took off the possibility of gender equality being on the
spotlight of gender promotion in the EU’s external policies in Egypt. The reason is that
the approach had the EU dealing with all the Mediterranean member countries as if they
were all the same cases, ignoring the huge differences and particularities from one
county to another, especially in a country like Egypt which was in one of the worst
states in gender equality related issues than any other.

60
In addition, the creation of so many new funding instruments proved to be futile as new
instruments create complexity, new structures, fragmentation and additional costs.
Instead the EU should have focused in adapting the existing funding instruments to the
new requirements. Moreover even though in both countries the opportunity is
characterized as strong it is evident that the opportunity in Tunisia is stronger. This can
be explained by the restrains on civil society in Egypt , the EU therefore cannot
cooperate nor fund any civil society organization which is not the case for Tunisia. The
EU is mostly cooperating with the NCW while in Tunisia the EU uses civil society in
order to gain valuable in field information.

6.1.4 An overall assessment

All in all, by also taking into consideration the status of gender equality in the political
educational and economical domains we can undeniably say that Tunisia is far more
advanced than Egypt in gender equality issues while EU’s actorness in the region was
also stronger than in Egypt.

However the EU is not to blame for neither of the cases. And certainly not for the case
of Egypt. The EU indeed at first did not prioritise gender equality in its policies towards
Egypt while in the case of Tunisia gender equality was somehow almost always
included in its policies, yet the overall advanced status of gender equality in the country
is again not to be credited to the EU. The one to be blame for both the situations is
undeniably the respective regimes and the ones before. Tunisia, is the only country in
the region where Arab Spring has led to important reforms and a transition to
democracy unlike Egypt which its transform was not easy as after a very short popularly
elected government with ties to the Muslim brotherhood to consolidating military
dictatorship, all while the Tunisian government was ratifying a new constitution after a
two year long processes enshrining among other rights the equality between men and
women.

Moreover Tunisia is a relatively small country (much smaller than Egypt) with almost
no geographical boundaries, which makes the country easy to govern and facilitates the
application of policies and programs. Also Tunisia is homogenous when it comes to
ethnic, linguistic and religious factors, which makes the country less likely to be a

61
subject of inner division. Additionally the dictator Ben Ali left the country much faster
than Mumbarak fact that also paved the way for faster transition. While also the Islamist
Ennahda party that won the first elections was much more devoted to human rights than
the one in Egypt.

Nevertheless, we cannot also say that Tunisia is a gender equality paradise either, the
situation is certainly better than in Egypt however the comparison in regards to
women’s rights shouldn’t be the rest of the region. Tunisia as well has a long road ahead
to achieve good standards of gender equality, as still the country faces many critical
issues regarding women’s rights for instance more than 47 percent of Tunisian women
aged 18-64 have undergone violence at least once in their lives231

The EU as an actor is doing its best to promote gender equality in the two countries but
the union can only act where the countries allow it to, where the countries give the
union ground and basis to act upon and unfortunately that is not the case for Egypt.

231
Jelalia, Nessryne. "Still A Long Way To Equality For Tunisian Women", Alaraby. 14 January 2015
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/comment/2015/1/14/still-a-long-way-to-equality-for-tunisian-women

62
7 Conclusion

Gender equality is an essential element in international cooperation and development,

especially in the countries that the present thesis examined. The reason is that gender
equality is central to all other aspects of development. From poverty alleviation to
human rights promotion up to economic growth.

The present thesis examined the EU’s actorness in gender equality promotion by using
Egypt and Tunisia as case studies.

In order to assess the EU’s actorness within the ENP program, I used the framework of
actorness and the components of opportunity, presence, capability, and divided my
analysis in two periods, the period prior to the Arab Spring and the period after the Arab
spring.

After going through the association agreements, action plans and agreements, I found
that EU’s actorness in Egypt when it comes to gender equality is moderate while EU’s
actorness in Tunisia is strong.

After assessing the EU’s actorness I moved to assessing gender equality within the
respective countries. To do so I examined three criteria: the economic opportunity, the
educational attainment and the political representation. Again after using statistics
referring to the period before and after the Arab Spring, I again concluded that Tunisia
was far more advanced in gender equality issues within its territory compared to Egypt.

Following the separate assessments I moved to combining my findings in order to draw

conclusions that would help me to answer to my research question and hypotheses.
Therefore I concluded that the situation in Tunisia is far better than in Egypt; however
Tunisia still has a long way to go with achieving good standards in terms of gender
equality, as the comparison with other countries in the Mena region shouldn’t be the
basis of comparison. As far as the role of the EU is concerned, even though the situation
in both countries wasn’t determined completely by the EU’s actorness, there are still
some measures that the Union can take in order to help improve the situation.

Consequently my answer to my research question “To what extend the EU promotes

gender equality in Egypt and Tunisia”, is that the EU had a strong overall actorness in
Tunisia and a moderate overall actorness in Egypt. As far as my two hypotheses are
concerned, indeed gender equality flourished more in Tunisia than in Egypt and
secondly the fact that the situation in both countries is mostly based on internal actors
rather than on the EU.

As far as the role of the EU is concerned, there are still some measures that the Union
could take into consideration in order to help and improve the situation

To begin with, the EU instead of proposing stronger conditionality in the region it could
use its more for more and less for less approach in a more flexible way, the reason is
that if the EU enforces its conditionality in the countries it risks to further alienate them
from its sphere of influence, instead if the EU, even if the country does not meet exactly
the unions standards of human rights keeps its harmonious relationship with the
respective country , it enhances the dialogue basis with the country and keeps the
options open for finding a viable solution. Lastly, another measure that the EU could
take is to further finance the EED by doing so the EU will further engage with civil
society fact that gives the Union the necessary ground to act upon in the respective
countries.

Closing, it is essential for the respective governments to see that women are their future,
women is their development and women is their progress and most importantly they
must see that women are their equals.

64
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