Employment Opportunities and Challenges for Less Educated Women in Geriatric Home Health Care: A Case Study from Cairo, Egypt

Employment Opportunities and Challenges for Less Educated Women in Geriatric Home Health Care: A Case Study from Cairo, Egypt

Kathrin Lotze

DEPARTMENT OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES, Noragric

NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES

MASTER THESIS 30 CREDITS 2007

Abstract

This study is addressing the problem of women from lower income classes in Cairo to find work opportunities because of their low level of education. At the same time, there is an increasing demand for geriatric home health care provider (GHHCP) due to a demographic transition and the resulting problem of ageing in Egypt. Addressing both problems, a lot of organizations started to offer training and employment in the field of geriatric home health care, encouraging especially less advantaged women to apply for this work. Despite the worsening economic situation in Egypt, which makes it necessary for those women to work, social and personal challenges make it difficult to work as a GHHCP. The objectives of this study are to find out why the occupation as a GHHCP is a good opportunity for less educated women, what can be done to overcome those challenges in order to find more acceptances in the society and to make this occupation more attractive to work in.

This thesis is based on a three months fieldwork in Cairo, Egypt. Through semi- structured interviews with women who both take the training, work as GHHCP and have quit this work, I gained a deeper insight into the women’s reasons to start this work, their problems with this work and what they think should be done to improve their working conditions. I also conducted interviews with staff of the different organizations in order to obtain more background information.

According to my findings, most of the GHHCP’s started this work because of the lack of other work opportunities, while at the same time needed the money to support the family income. However, despite of a lot of challenges, most women like to work in this field. The major challenges are the concern for women who work alone and without the protection of a male family member in the care takers house, the equalizing of the women’s work with the work of a domestic servant, and the reduced time for taking care of the family and household.

In order to overcome those challenges and to make this occupation more acceptable and attractive, the role of as well the organizations, as the media and the state are very important.

http://www.umb.no/statisk/noragric/publications/master/2007_katrin_lotze.pdf