The Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) announced on Wednesday that the number of female heads of households recorded 3.3 million in the 2017 census.
This came in a press release with a number of analytical studies on population, housing, and census data 2017.
The CAPMAS added that the percentage of illiterate females was 59.1% of total family household heads, followed by those with intermediate certificates at 17.6% and those with a university degree at 8.5%.
Most of female heads of households in the 2017 census were widows, representing 70.3% of total female household heads followed by married women at 16.6% and divorced women at 7.1%.
“The percentage of married women increased from 63.4% in 2006 to 70.3% in 2017, while the divorce rate rose from 1.2% in 2006 to 1.7% in 2017, and the percentage of unmarried females dropped from 24.3% in 2006 to 17% during 2017,” according to the CAPMAS.
The CAPMAS revealed that the percentage of illiterate persons decreased from 37.3% in 2006 to 30.8% in 2017.
Furthermore, the CAPMAS revealed that the dropout rate of females in primary school decreased from 41.9% in 2006 to 22.4 % in 2017, and that the dropout rates of females in the preparatory stage decreased from 58.1% in 2006 to 40.4% in 2017, resulting in an improvement in the gender parity index, which dropped from 1.1 in 2006 to 1.07 in 2017 for females.
Moreover, the CAPMAS stated that the percentage of females with a university qualification increased between 2006 and 2017 and reached 10.8% in 2017 compared to 7.9% in 2006.
Noteworthy, this study aims at shedding light on the development and social status of women in Egyptian society from 2006-2017.
