We analyze the effects of the 2011 Egyptian revolution on the relative labor market
conditions of women and men using panel information from the Egypt Labor Market
Panel Survey (ELMPS). We construct our measure of intensity of the revolution – the
governorate-level number of martyrs, i.e. demonstrators who died during the protests
- using unique information from the Statistical Database of the Egyptian Revolution.
We find that the revolution has reduced the gender gap in labor force participation,
employment, and probability of working in the private sector, and it has caused an
increase in women’s probability of working in the informal sector. The political change
has affected mostly the relative labor market outcomes of women in households at the
bottom of the pre-revolution income distribution. We link these findings to the literature
showing how a relevant temporary shock to the labor division between women
and men can have long run consequences on the role of women in society