The number of women occupying positions in the Algerian judiciary, education, health and industrial sectors is equal, if not higher, than the number of men.
The gap, however, is evident at parliament and local elected councils and among government staff and agencies, where men vastly outnumber women.
The National Union of Algerian Women has long demanded that this imbalance be addressed.
Minister of National Solidarity, Family and Women’s Affairs Kaoutar Krikou stressed during the 40th session of the Arab Women’s Committee in February that Algerian women have “gone beyond their traditional role and are now pioneers by assuming the positions that were stipulated in the recent constitutional amendment, which approved the principle of equality between women and men.”
“This reflects the state’s political will to bolster women’s rights and gains similar to their counterparts in the Arab world,” the Algerian News Agency quoted Kaoutar as saying.
According to government statistics in 2016, the number of working women in Algeria was almost two million, compared to only 1.2 million in 2005. Women make up 17.6 percent of the workforce, while the figure stood at 14.6 percent 11 years ago.
Achieving equality with men in the workforce, a goal declared by the government, is still a distant reality, lamented women’s rights organizations.
In the field of medicine, female doctors make up 59 percent of the staff working in public and private clinics, while women make up 72 percent of dentists and pharmacists in the country, according to statistics from 2015. Women also make up the majority of physicians at public clinics.
Despite these figures, women have a tougher time landing jobs than men, said government reports.
In the industrial sector, Algerian women record the highest figures across the Arab world, making up 55.8 percent of the workforce, according to El Massa daily.
In politics, the first Arab woman to run for president was Algerian. Head of the left-wing Workers’ Party Louisa Hanoune ran for president in 2009 and again in 2014.
At the recently dissolved parliament, women occupied 154 seats, or 30 percent of the legislature. This number could not have been possible without the adoption of an amended electoral law that forced parties to allocate 30 percent of their lists to female candidates.
This law was widely supported by women rights associations, while political parties and figures criticized it for prioritizing the quota over competency. In fact, several parties claimed that they encountered difficulties in finding female candidates in the mostly conservative interior and Sahara regions.
