I was recently at the American University in Cairo (AUC), surrounded by highly educated young women, taking part in a discussion of why women continue to struggle to find jobs. That paradox tells us almost everything we need to know about Egypt’s labour market.

It was also at the centre of the second edition of the Development Dialogues series, organised by ERF in partnership with the World Bank Group, and hosted on this occasion by AUC Onsi Sawiris School of Business. The series aims to create spaces for students and young researchers to engage with experts on complex development challenges and evidence-based policy debates.

This dialogue focused on one of Egypt’s most pressing development challenges: what will truly help to close the gender gap in the labour market?

The stakes are high. Across emerging economies, 1.2 billion young people are expected to reach working age over the next decade, while far fewer jobs are projected to be created.

In Egypt alone, around 2 million jobs are needed each year to absorb new entrants into the labour market and raise the country’s employment rate. At the same time, women’s labour force participation remains low despite recent  gains in education. Leaving this potential untapped is not only inequitable: it is economically costly.

Education opens the door – but too often, something blocks the hallway

The event was structured around two student teams presenting different perspectives on the drivers of women’s labour market outcomes in Egypt.

One perspective emphasised the sheer scale of Egypt’s job creation challenge. Large cohorts of young people are entering working age every year, far outpacing the number of jobs being created. From this view, women’s labour market outcomes cannot improve meaningfully without stronger economic growth, greater private sector dynamism and faster job creation overall. Labour market exclusion, the argument goes, is closely tied to an economy that simply does not generate enough good jobs.

A recurring but misplaced concern is that the low women’s labour force participation reflects the decline in public employment. While the state remains an important employer of women, it does not follow that public employment should absorb women’s labour supply: the potential for women’s employment in the private sector is far larger, and examples abound.

The second perspective focused less on the quantity of jobs and more on access for women. Educational gains, participants argued, do not automatically translate into employment. Even when jobs exist, women often face barriers that men do not: unpaid care responsibilities, unsafe or unreliable transport, workplace conditions, hiring practices and social expectations that shape what kinds of work are considered acceptable or even possible. The result is a persistent disconnect between education and employment outcomes.

What emerged from the exchange was not a winner between these two views, but a clearer diagnosis of the problem – along with evident passion and engagement from the students. Women’s participation in the labour market cannot be explained by a single factor. Growth matters, but so do the sectors in which growth occurs, the types of jobs being created and the formal and informal barriers placed on women.

Digitalisation was a recurring theme. Technology adoption, remote work and platform-based employment are reshaping labour markets globally, creating new opportunities while also raising new questions around access, skills, flexibility and protection.

These shifts could improve women’s participation, but only if accompanied by investments in digital access, skills development and supportive labour market frameworks. Without deliberate policy choices, the future of work risks widening gaps rather than closing them.

Another recurring theme was how uncertainty around job quality, wages and career progression intersects with social expectations and unpaid care responsibilities to shape women’s labour market participation. It was striking to hear the new generation reflect on these constraints.

Growth that does not work for women will always fall short of its potential

At the World Bank Group, jobs are central to our development approach because jobs are about far more than income. Jobs shape dignity, security and opportunity.

For Egypt, creating more and better jobs will remain essential to sustaining long-term growth and improving living standards. But growth alone will not be enough. If labour markets are not designed to be accessible, safe and compatible with the realities many women face, participation gaps will persist.

One of the clearest takeaways from the Development Dialogues is that closing the gender gap in work requires progress on multiple fronts at once. Stronger private sector growth must go hand in hand with more inclusive labour market conditions, safer and more reliable transport, better support for care responsibilities and workplace environments that allow women not only to enter the labour force, but also to remain and advance.

The challenge is not just about preparing individuals for jobs: it is about ensuring that labour markets themselves become more inclusive.

The students who participated in the debate demonstrated analytical rigour, awareness of economic realities and a willingness to engage with difficult trade‑offs. That matters. Because the future of Egypt’s labour market will not be shaped only by institutions, policies or projections – but by whether the next generation is willing to confront the paradox visible in that AUC auditorium and to design an economy where education and opportunity finally align.