By Patrick Clawson, Washington Institute contributor
Fifty years of rapid population growth in the Middle East is coming to an end. The Middle East is experiencing the same "demographic transition" to slow population growth that other areas have gone through.
The immediate reason for the slower population growth is a fall in the number of children born to the average woman over her lifespan, known as the "total fertility rate" (TFR). While contraception availability and urbanization played a part in the declining TFR, the main factor was the empowerment of women.
In recent decades, Middle Eastern women have made great progress at gaining more equal access to education, but that has not yet translated into more access to employment outside the home.
The demographic transition through which the Middle East is passing presents an opportunity that is also a challenge. The opportunity is several decades in which the economy faces a relatively light burden in caring for children and the elderly. Click to read full article
While employing women could be a serious challenge in the next few decades, women's employment could become a savior by mid-century as the number of youth fall off at the same time that the elderly population begins to soar. Having a pool of women to add to the work force could do much to meet the challenge of funding retirement for the rapidly increasing elderly population.
In other words, the economic pressures for bringing women in the labor force will grow as the population ages.
Patrick Clawson is deputy director for research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy
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