Does Quality Education and Governance Matter for Women’s Empowerment? The Role of Structural Factors and Governance in the MENA Region

Women’s empowerment can be critical in achieving sustainable development goals. We analyse the influence of the quality of education, structural factors, and governance on women’s empowerment in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries using a generalised method of moments (GMM). Furthermore, this article examines the moderating effect of governance on the relationship between quality of education and women’s empowerment. The role of governance is measured along economic and political dimensions. Quality education is measured by enrolment in secondary education, women’s empowerment is measured by the ratio of women’s participation to men’s employment, and structural factors are measured by electricity accessibility and the fertility rate. These variables were selected from existing studies published by global entities. The findings revealed that women’s empowerment substantially influenced the quality of education in the MENA region. Further findings show that governance-induced changes substantially and positively influence inclusive education in all contexts. However, the results show negative and significant interaction coefficients between women’s empowerment and political and economic governance. This indicates that the interaction between women’s empowerment and governance has a complementary effect. Furthermore, our results should motivate regulators and governments to initiate more policies to improve the quality of education and women’s empowerment. This study provides policymakers with insights into the potential role of governance and structural factors in promoting women’s empowerment through quality education.