ABSTRACT
In at least eight Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries, women now outnumber men at the university level, in some cases by a significant number. The MENA region still has the lowest female workforce participation rate of any region in the world, by a wide margin. The lag in women's workforce participation poses a significant challenge to MENA economies. Legal reforms, although uneven across Arab countries, have also helped to improve the status of women and to expand their participation in social, political, civic, and economic life in many countries. Legal and regulatory barriers can constrain women's economic opportunities in a number of ways. State governments across the Middle East have started to focus efforts on supporting women-owned enterprises and female entrepreneurship as a means of increasing female economic participation. Government policies have targeted women's lack of funding, underdeveloped support services, and societal stigma.
