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Accepted Paper:
Formal work arrangements harbour precarious conditions for workers: research from Egypt illustrates the unstable nature of formal work and the high cost women incur when formally employed
Hania Sholkamy
(The American University in Cairo)
The paper concerns garment workers in 8 factories in Egypt. It illustrates the falsity to formal/informal categories of employment as women experience work not in terms of these categories but as a set of relationships in which they bear little power and have minimum leverage.
Paper long abstract:
The Egypt paper, titled “The Injustices of Employment” examines the nexus between formal work and precarity in Egyptian labor markets and questions the principles that underpin work as a strategic route to social justice. Based on a study of women employed in the garment industry and amongst health care workers and providers the paper argues that for many women workers and service providers, care responsibilities, familial duties and social pressures collide with the disciplining nature of formal work. This makes it difficult for women workers to realize the full benefits of formal work while maintaining their rights to social protection and to a family life and points to the attractions of informality as a coping strategy. The paper emphasises the patriarchal nature of shop floors and employment relations and addresses the possibilities of reframing the informal/formal choices of workers.