The ‘Women of Egypt‘ initiative, which is committed to supporting and empowering women, is launching an online campaign ‘Work from anywhere’ as part of a system of flexible working hours.
The campaign intends to raise the awareness of employers of the importance of applying flexible working hours to empower women economically and give them equal opportunities to enter the field of work.
The campaign will present the benefits of this system and motivate employers to hire women with the promise of career advancement without the upheavals due to pregnancy and child-rearing.
“Our goal in the campaign is to raise society’s awareness of the necessity to respects the social conditions of working women, instead of forcing them to leave their job, or create obstacles,” campaign coordinator Radwa Hosni said.
“The campaign does not mean a demand for women to go back home in order to prevent their success, but if they choose the remote work system, this will be to sustain their career without interruption,” Hosni added.
“It is worth noting that the initiative’s work team are all from different cities inside and outside Egypt, and this is perhaps the most telling example of the productivity of remote work. Working remotely is the best way for me to balance my work as a content writer with completing my academic studies,” she said.
Remote work, which is also known as working from home, or flexible workplaces, gives employees the freedom to perform their job from anywhere outside the headquarters of the company or organisation in which they work.
As for the flexible working hours system, it allows employees to determine the time that suits them to work, provided that they meet the total number of daily or weekly working hours.
According to the statement by the initiative, Egyptian women suffer due to inequality in the labour market, and are exposed to many negative attitudes in the workplace. In addition, they are more affected by the challenges they face in balancing between work and family, and this delays or prevents them from promotion or professional development.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, thousands of women in Egypt have lost their jobs or too unpaid leave or sick leave to care for their children after the schools closed, even though they would have been able to work without interruption if the flexible work system had been available.
The campaign will continue on social media platforms until June 15.
During this period, the campaign will present the challenges facing working women and business owners, allaying employers’ fears of the remote work system, offer ways to develop business through activating remote work programmes and the flexible working hours system.
The campaign will also present meetings with experts in designing applications and programmes that facilitate remote work, as well as some workers and business owners who use these applications.
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