Women's Representation in the Egyptian Parliament ( 2015-2020)

The study is based on an assessment of Egyptian women’s role and representation in the 2015 and 2020 parliaments. Women participated in the 2015 and 2020 parliaments like never before. In 2015, It was the first time for 90 women to become members of parliament. 15% percent of the Egyptian parliament seats were reserved to women. This would not have been possible without the quota stated in the parliamentary law. Few studies have tackled women’s representation and performance in the parliament. This study conducts interviews with female parliamentarians and a content analysis of the parliamentary records in order to estimate the participation of women in the discussions, women’s participation in the standing committees, women’s role in proposing different bills especially those focusing on women’s rights, women’s response to the challenges confronting their parliamentary performance. The study addresses whether the huge representation of women in the parliament contributed to advancement of women’s rights and changed legislation in favor of women. Moreover, the study gives special attention to the notion of “critical mass”; were women able to develop a critical mass in the 2015 parliament and with the increase of women seats to nearly 26% of the parliament seats in the 2020 elections. It seeks to unravel the dynamics of issuing legislations in Egypt relying on primary data analyzing interviews and parliamentary records. The interviews are conducted with women parliamentarians from different governorates, educational background, religious background, age groups, and political affiliations.