President of the National Council for Women, Dr. Maya Morsi, met with Christopher Stevens, Senior Vice President of the World Bank Group and General Legal Counsel, and a number of World Bank officials to get acquainted with Egypt’s efforts in the field of economic empowerment of women and support their participation in the labor market, decision-making positions, and boards of directors of companies.
Morsi expressed her sincere appreciation to the World Bank Group for its permanent cooperation and role in supporting activities, projects, and programs for women’s empowerment in Egypt.
She further stressed that Egypt has witnessed remarkable progress in legal reforms for the agenda of Egyptian women’s empowerment in general and women’s economic empowerment in particular with the support of the political leadership in Egypt and appreciation for the role and status of Egyptian women.
Dr. Morsi reviewed the steps taken by Egypt to push companies to support women’s participation in the labor market and their access to decision-making positions, including work with the United Nations Women’s Organization on the principles of women’s empowerment, as well as the World Bank on the seal of Egyptian gender equality.
A code of ethics was also issued to prevent sexual harassment and violence within the work environment for companies listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange that work in the field of non-banking finance, also referring to the decision of the Financial Supervisory Authority regarding the representation of women in companies’ boards of directors. Dr. Maya Morsi also spoke about the Women’s Monitor on the Board of Directors.
The administration, which was launched in cooperation with the American University in Cairo, the United Nations Women’s Organization, the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, and a number of other bodies, referring to its role in training women on boards of directors.
Morsi confirmed that the National Council for Women had added in its new proposal to the Labor Law an article prohibiting all forms of sexual harassment, violence, assault, exploitation, and abuse of power in the workplace or on the occasion of work.
She also referred to the Council’s role in training women in areas such as financial education, entrepreneurship, and financial inclusion, to raise women’s financial and economic awareness.
The Head of NCW proceeded to explain the importance of using social networking sites in working to shed light on the success stories of women in all leadership positions and successful models for women, noting that social networking sites play a major role nowadays and attract the interest of a large base of new generations, and constitute a main source of knowledge and information for them.
On his part, Senior Vice President of the World Bank Group and General Legal Counsel, Christopher Stevens, stressed the importance of benefiting from the conferences that are held to gather the largest number of companies and to get acquainted closely with the efforts of the various companies and their policies to empower women in the labor market and their access to decision-making positions and support the benefit and exchange of expertise and experiences between companies in this field.
