NAJWA RAHIM

Algeria – Economic and social pressures in the Maghreb countries are no longer merely indicators appearing in tables of unemployment, inflation, and growth. There are many women trying to establish their presence in the labor market, preserve their sources of income, and confront the rising cost of living, at a time when access to full economic independence remains fraught with professional and social obstacles.

In Algeria, the picture appears more complex than merely talking about the rise in women's unemployment or the vulnerability of work. On the one hand, there is gradual progress in women's presence within the labor market, and on the other hand, the continuation of a large gap between women and men in economic participation and unemployment.

According to the results of the study conducted by the Algerian National Office of Statistics on activity, employment, and unemployment covering the period between 2019 and 2025, the unemployment rate in Algeria reached 9.7 percent, while the unemployment rate in 2019 was estimated at 11.4 percent, and this rate was distributed as 20.4 percent for women and 19.5 percent for men.

According to the same statistics, women are concentrated in the public sector at 61.1 percent, while the private sector is 38.9 percent. The work of women and girls in Algeria is concentrated in health and social work at 45 percent of the total jobs, in public administration at 14 percent, and in manufacturing industries at 19 percent. Available statistics reveal that the employment rate for those with a university level is estimated at 35.3 percent, a small percentage compared to the educational level that women in Algeria have reached.

This paradox is important for understanding the reality of women in Algeria. Women's unemployment rates do not necessarily mean a decline in economic participation, but can also reflect the entry of a larger number of women into the labor market and the beginning of searching for jobs. In other words, a woman who was outside the labor market and has become searching for a job moves statistically into the category of economically active and unemployed, which partially explains the combination of rising participation with rising unemployment.

This composition means that the largest part of women's presence in the labor market is linked to services, including fields such as education, health, administration, and various services, while their presence in other sectors remains lower. Previous data also show an important concentration of working women in public employment; data based on the report "Algerian Women in Figures 2019" indicated that more than 61% of working women held jobs in the public sector.

In the public debate about the rise in the number of working women, an image sometimes appears that reduces the issue to the fact that women "took work positions" from men. However, this reading does not align with the size of women's economic participation itself.

Rising Women's Participation Does Not Eliminate the Unemployment Gap

Dr. Aisha Srar, president of the "Houria for Algerian Women" Association, believes that the rise in the number of working women from about one million and 97 thousand women to nearly three million does not mean that women "monopolized" the labor market, especially since their economic participation rate is still limited compared to men.

According to Aisha Srar, evaluating women's economic situation should not rely only on the number of working women, but must take into account the quality of the job, professional stability, social protection, promotion opportunities, and the extent to which work achieves economic independence.

This point acquires greater importance when we move from the question "How many women work?" to another, more precise question: What does this work give to women?

Here, researcher in urban sociology Khadija Boussaid places the concept of vulnerability in a broader framework than unemployment and poverty. According to her analysis, economic vulnerability does not necessarily mean that the individual is poor, but refers to an unstable situation that makes them more exposed to the risk of sliding toward poverty when an economic or social shock occurs.

Consequently, a woman may be working and earning an income, but she remains economically vulnerable if her work is unstable, or her income is fluctuating, or she lacks social protection or the ability to access resources and opportunities.

Khadija Boussaid bases this analysis on the works of French sociologist Robert Castel, who linked social insecurity to its economic, social, and psychological effects, and on his approach to the concept of "capabilities." Accordingly, equality is not measured only by the income an individual possesses, but by their actual ability to access education, information, services, resources, and opportunities.

From this perspective, limited access to financing, productive resources, or land, alongside weak social protection, can make women more vulnerable to fragility even when they have a job or source of income.

She links this situation to broader transformations witnessed by the labor market, which led to more fragmentation and the emergence of unstable jobs and new forms of professional insecurity. In this context, the researcher evokes the concept of "precarity" developed by British sociologist Guy Standing to describe a category living in a state of professional and social instability and lacking sufficient guarantees.

For women, this professional vulnerability intersects with other factors, including discrimination related to motherhood, harassment in the workplace, difficulty accessing some resources, in addition to what Khadija Boussaid describes as the "double day," where a woman combines paid work with housework and family care.

Therefore, a woman's entry into the labor market does not necessarily mean her arrival at economic independence. Independence requires a stable job, regular income, social protection, and the ability to make economic decisions, as well as time and resources that allow her to maintain her professional path.

She points out that women's orientation toward public employment can be partially understood as a search for stability and professional security in the face of difficulties that may be greater in the private sector, including discrimination related to motherhood, harassment, and working conditions.

Unstable Work and the Absence of Social Protection

The informal economy, on the other hand, may turn into a space that provides income when opportunities in the formal sector narrow, but it carries at the same time additional risks due to weak social protection, irregular incomes, and the difficulty of economic recognition of some forms of work performed by women.

Hence, vulnerability becomes an accumulative path rather than a single moment. It may begin with temporary work or limited income, then worsen with the absence of social protection or difficulty accessing financing, before becoming clearer upon losing a job or the occurrence of divorce, widowhood, or a crisis within the family.

This equation cannot be separated from the cost of living. Even when inflation declines, this does not mean that prices have returned to their previous levels, but basically means that the pace of their rise has become slower.

Therefore, the impact of prices on women is not linked to the inflation rate alone, but to the relationship between income, the cost of living, and the stability of work. A woman who possesses a regular income and a margin of economic independence has a greater ability to confront rising prices than a woman who depends entirely on a single family income or works in an unstable activity.

Here, economic data meets sociological analysis: the more stable a woman's source of income, the wider her ability to confront shocks; and the more fragile the income, the more any rise in expenses or loss of work affects her economic and social life.

This issue also appears when talking about violence against women, although it is important not to present a direct causal relationship between economic status and violence in the absence of studies proving that. Available figures reveal the continuation of the scale of the phenomenon, while economic independence, support networks, and protection can be important factors in a woman's ability to exit a violent situation.

At the level of protection, the picture is not limited to challenges. The Algerian authorities have recently announced new mechanisms for reporting and accompaniment, including an electronic platform and assistance and guidance services, and there are also official centers to receive women victims of violence.

Progress in the Scale of Participation Does Not Eliminate Challenges

These data reveal that the path of empowering women in Algeria cannot be reduced to unemployment indicators alone. There is clear progress in the scale of women's participation; the number of economically active women has exceeded three million for the first time, and the female activity rate has risen compared to 2016.

But this progress does not eliminate the challenges. The gap between women's and men's participation is still large, and women's unemployment remains high, while the type of work, stability, and social protection raise questions that go beyond merely accessing a job.

In the end, the Algerian picture does not appear to be a picture of complete regression, nor can it be described as having reached economic equality. It is a transitional phase in which women's participation is gradually advancing, while transforming this presence into sustainable economic independence remains the biggest challenge.

This is what makes Algeria's experience, compared to the rest of the Maghreb countries, worthy of reading from two angles at once: recognizing what has been achieved, and not ignoring what still needs to be addressed. The most important figure is not only the number of women who have entered the labor market, but the number of women who have been able to transform this entry into stable work, independent income, social protection, and a real ability to confront crises.