This research deals with women’s empowerment as an outcome of interest by defining the
different individual and socio-demographic determinants that affect women’s empowerment in
the Egyptian society. The paper analyzed two dimensions of women’s empowerment; the
decision-making and the mobility aspects of Egyptian women. Using the Egypt Labor Market
Panel Survey (ELMPS) 2012, we estimated a decision-making index and a mobility index. Our
results came in line with the literature; age, education, employment, poverty status, number of
children, having an adult son in addition to a woman’s husband, and her father’s characteristics
appeared as significant determinants of empowerment. Further, most of these determinants,
showed varying impact depending on the dimension of empowerment studied. The regional
context was found to be very important in explaining Egyptian women’s empowerment.
Context was not only found to be an important determinant of women’s empowerment as
measured by our two indices, but it was also found to affect the impact of the other individual
and socio demographic determinants on women’s empowerment.