Stefanie Heyne

Stiff Competition for Privileged Jobs: Young Women’s Transition from School to Work

While the previous chapter addressed the decision of young women to either participate in the labor market or fully engage in housework, this chapter focuses on those women who actively engage in the job search after they have left the education system. Information regarding central labor market characteristics in chapters 1 and 3 revealed that young women in MENA countries not only face the highest inactivity rates but also face the highest unemployment rate worldwide. Finding a job is a central marker in the transition to adulthood in MENA countries due to its importance in gaining independence from the family, as well as for securing a good socio-economic position, career, and life chances. As long as young women do not find a job, they must rely on familial economic support. This is partly because the state provides only weak support in terms of passive and active labor market policies. Thus, it is important to fully investigate the phenomenon of job searching among young female school leavers and the way young women succeed in finding a first job. Only then can one better understand the problem of high female youth unemployment rates.

A Polarized World of Female Employment? The Quality of First Employment

The previous chapter showed that finding a first job is not an easy task for young women in MENA countries. High levels of unemployment and long search durations are significant challenges that young women face when engaging in the job search process. Even when women succeed in entering a first job, it is still not guaranteed that the first job will offer good working conditions. Previous research reported high levels of job precariousness among labor market entrants in MENA countries (Silver, 2007). Despite that, a certain proportion of highly educated young women succeed in entering high-quality jobs. Thus, the quality of first employment may vary substantially between different groups of young women.

Data and Methodology

The following empirical analyses use high-quality longitudinal national data sets (see Table 4.1). These retrospective life course and school leaver surveys were explicitly designed for the kinds of analyses we conducted. They provide very detailed information on the processes of the transition to adulthood we are studying, including longitudinal information, which is essential for studying the dynamics of life course transitions.

A Micro-Macro Theory of Young Women’s Transition to Adulthood

In this chapter we develop a general theoretical framework for understanding young women’s early life courses and the chances and barriers they face in MENA countries. This framework builds on the life course approach, which is a helpful framework for integrating differing macro- and micro-level perspectives into a single micro-macro theory of young women’s transition to adulthood. The life course approach can be understood more as a set of theoretical and methodological heuristics or orientations rather than a specific theory (Mayer, 2004). An individual’s life course is defined by central individual transitions and trajectories such as processes of educational attainment, labor market attainment, career processes, retirement processes, and processes of family formation (Dhillon et al., 2009: 12).

The Context of Case Studies: Egypt, Iran, Jordan, and Syria in Comparison

In the previous chapter we emphasized the central role of the social context for young women’s individual life courses. To fully understand the social situation of young women in MENA countries it is important to look at the specific context that shapes their transition into adulthood in Egypt, Iran, Jordan, and Syria. For this purpose we conduct detailed studies of central life course transitions of young women in this book.

Young Women’s Transition to Marriage and Household Formation in Difficult Times

In contrast to many Western countries, marriage is still a universal event in young women’s life courses and is the normative precondition for legitimate sexual relationships and reproduction in MENA countries (Rashad et al., 2005). Marriage represents an important marker in the transition to adulthood because young women leave their parent’s home after marriage and either move in with their husband’s family or start an independent life with their husbands in a nuclear family setting (Assaad and Ramadan, 2008; Yount et al., 2012).

Back Home: Young Women’s Transition from School to Inactivity

Having discussed the challenges young women face in the education system in chapters 5 and 6, we investigate young women’s chances of labor market integration. In a standard life course sequence, the transition from school to work represents the next central life course event young women face on their way to adulthood. Previous research has shown that decisions made at this stage of the life course set the track for the future labor market career and patterns of family formation (Blossfeld et al., 2005).

Completing the Pathway: The Transition to First Birth

Following the traditional order of life course events in MENA countries, this chapter discusses the timing and determinants of motherhood. In Chapter 3, we highlighted the striking decline in fertility, maternal mortality, and infant mortality rates in MENA countries during the last two decades. The decline in fertility rates is largely due to delay of childbirth. In line with the increasing age at first marriage, the average age of transition to motherhood has increased in MENA countries more than in other developing regions of the world (Lloyd et al., 2005). However, the previous chapters showed that early childbirth is still experienced by a non-negligible proportion of women at younger ages, even before leaving education and before entering the labor market. Thus, it can be expected that the general trend towards delayed childbirth, in combination with the non-negligible incidence of teenage childbirth, has been accompanied by an increasing social differentiation in patterns of first childbirth within MENA societies.

Education Failures? The Problem of Limited Access to Education and Early Dropout Among Young Women

Education plays an important role in the growth of an individual and development of a society. Numerous studies from developing countries show that female educational expansion increases economic growth, and lowers fertility rates and infant mortality rates. Such expansion also promotes children’s education because educated women are more likely to send their children to school (for an overview, see Hannum and Buchmann, 2005; Lewis and Lockheed, 2008; World Bank, 2008). On an individual and family level, education plays an important role in increasing the chances of young women entering the labor market and of generating labor market returns, not only in terms of higher wages but also in terms of secure jobs (see chapters 8 and 9). Furthermore, in the countries of the Middle East, education plays an important role in the marriage market (see Chapter 10). But education does not simply increase women’s status in terms of material advantages. Previous studies demonstrate that education increases women’s status within the family by giving women greater control over family finances; education can even protect them from domestic violence (Lewis and Lockheed, 2008). Additionally, education improves young women’s future life chances not only directly via increasing human capital but also indirectly by forming preferences and attitudes (Lloyd, 2005).

The Determinants of Young Women’s Access to Higher Education

As discussed in the previous chapter, education is a central determinant of future life chances and is an important stage in a young woman’s transition to adulthood. In modern societies, the formal education system is the central institution where one accumulates human capital and acquires formal certificates, which are used by employers as signals of productivity (see Chapter 8). Education certificates can also act as a signal on the marriage market (see Chapter 10). Moreover, young women participating in the education system acquire not only human capital, they also accumulate social and cultural capital, which affects their future life chances (Lloyd, 2005).