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Throughout history, Egyptian women have proved themselves true partners to men in many things.
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In spite of this, and today in 2011, we still find people in Egypt who look at women
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with a conflicted and unjust viewpoint.
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I have 3 different work experiences:
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Regarding the first experience - from my point of view as a woman -
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I'll be talking about the difference between my work and that of men.
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Okay, so I was already lucky that I received my first job offer right after graduation.
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The head of the department where I worked was a woman
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so, maybe she didn't really have a problem with whether I was a woman or a man.
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They preferred to have a man for the job,
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but they noticed that all the men who applied for jobs
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were less competent and active than the women.
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I got the job.
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But what was notable throughout the six years that I spent in my first job
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- which was in a journalism institution that has a website -
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was that there was a gap in salaries between men and women.
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Men always received higher salaries, even if they worked less.
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Even if they had a lesser position.
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The logic we were told stood behind it was that they were responsible for their families and homes
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and consequently they are more deserving of a higher salary.
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I don't think that the Egyptian society does not accept women's work
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but I believe that the problems facing women regarding work
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do not pertain to the society not accepting their work.
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They rather have to do with women having to deal with specific cases preventing them from doing so.
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For example, I have many friends, who willingly chose to stay at home for over a year - at first -
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with their young children.
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And when they tried after to get back into the job market, they faced problems,
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like wanting to find training or guidance,
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and they have no idea who can help them find these things.
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Some of them try to find opportunities of free grants, for example,
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that will help them get back to the job market,
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but they don't have anyone to provide good guidance in how to obtain these grants.
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In lots of other cases, there are ladies who think of having their own projects at home
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and they, too, need some form of help,
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someone to tell them what the steps to achieving their goals are.
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We need a stronger role for women in Egypt in the upcoming period.
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Since we are about to go into elections,
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which could be the first REAL elections to be held in Egypt,
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we need to have more political awareness for women.
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There should be easy tips on women's websites,
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so that women, since they will login to the website anyways,
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could do something useful, like read something that would tell them how to vote
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or what the PR list system is like, how the individual list system works,
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how the elections will proceed.
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Women need to know all of this quickly before the elections
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so, this might be a good idea: that we put such information on websites for women.
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We're now entering a new era,
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Where we can see a new Egypt that has no corruption or despotism.
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We also want to see a new way of perceiving women in Egypt.
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"Egyptian Women Voice" is a new website that raises awareness, and helps women solve their problems.
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