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Paper short abstract:

This paper examines an NGO’s craft-based Women’s Economic Empowerment programme in Egypt. It explores how caregiving responsibilities intersect with women’s labour opportunities and how organisational mediation and power play shape women’s continued labour participation.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines women’s labour force participation through a case study NGO’s handicraft-based Women’s Economic Empowerment programme in, Egypt, implemented across three of the poorest Cairo neighbourhoods: Imbaba, Sayeda Ayesha, and Dar Al Salam. Drawing on qualitative data from 49 participants through focus groups, interviews, and ethnographic observations, it investigates how caregiving responsibilities intersect with precarious labour opportunities and how organizational mediation and power play affect women’s continued labour participation.

Handicraft workshop supervisors are critical intermediaries between the NGOs funding them and the women who work for them (NGO beneficiaries). Supervisors are crucial in accommodating women’s caregiving responsibilities through flexible working conditions and care-oriented management styles. In this research, women workers expressed that their entry into the labour market, empowerment, and well-being requires more than economic resources; it involves supervisors recognising their double burdens and exercising power with an ethic of care. These findings reveal that care support systems and care-oriented management styles embedded within precarious handicraft workshops can mitigate structural barriers to women’s labour force entry and continued participation. Therefore, handicraft workshop supervisors can act as either facilitators or hinderers of women’s labour force entry and continued participation.

The paper situates these findings within the broader context of MENA’s low female labour force participation rates. By analysing the role of mediators as gateways or gatekeepers, the paper contributes to development debates by emphasising the undervaluation of care work and highlighting the opportunities and limitations of mediation in enhancing women’s economic participation and empowerment in precarious labour markets.