Morocco faces persistent gender inequality despite legal progress

Morocco has achieved significant legal advances for women over the past two decades, yet structural gender inequalities continue to persist and reproduce themselves, depriving the country of a substantial portion of its economic and social potential, according to a new analysis by former minister Nouzha Chekrouni. The Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South made these findings in a chapter titled Gender Dynamics and Empowerment in Morocco featured in the recently released Oxford Handbook of the Moroccan Economy, a reference work on the kingdom's economy published on June 3, 2026.

The female labor force participation rate stands at just 19 percent according to the 2024 census, a figure that has been declining steadily since the 2000s and places Morocco among the economies furthest from activity parity globally. Chekrouni, a university professor and former Moroccan ambassador to Canada, poses a fundamental question about the nation's trajectory: whether Morocco wants to advance society with its full potential or with only 50 percent of it. The new Moroccan development model aims to raise female labor participation to 45 percent by 2035, and projections cited in her chapter indicate this single change would generate a 39.5 percent increase in GDP, demonstrating that gender equality represents a strategic investment rather than a social cost.

The 2004 Moudawana (Family Code) remains a foundational text that replaced conjugal submission with a pact based on mutual consent according to article 4, which Chekrouni describes as a true quiet revolution. Twenty years later however, patriarchal culture continues absorbing reforms without translating them concretely into practice. Inheritance rights remain the red line uncrossed since 1958, systematically circumvented by reforms in 1993, 2004, and even the ongoing revision since 2022. Article 19 of the Constitution guarantees equality of rights while conditioning it on the constants of the Kingdom, creating an ambiguity that opens both interpretive space and blocking mechanisms. Chekrouni identifies three levels of disconnect between the legal framework and lived reality: persistent inheritance inequalities, insufficient implementation of existing laws due to lack of rigorous monitoring mechanisms, and territorial inequalities that widen the gap between urban and rural women.

The paradox is particularly striking in higher education where women now represent a majority of enrollment with feminization rates in STEM fields exceeding the OECD average, yet this advancement does not translate into the labor market. Between 2012 and 2019, 84 percent of young women in NEET status (neither in employment, education, nor training) were women compared to 30 percent for men. Among 15 to 24 year olds, female unemployment reached 44.4 percent in 2022 according to the High Commission for Planning, nearly twelve points above the national rate. Chekrouni describes a market structurally hostile to female insertion regardless of education level, citing hiring discrimination, stereotypes about women's purported instability in business, absence of childcare services, gaps in transportation and public security, and a wage gap reaching 43 percent in the private sector.

Parliamentary representation presents a similar picture with women's presence in the Chamber of Representatives rising from 1 percent to 24 percent over twenty five years, yet remaining largely dependent on the national list mechanism designed as a temporary transitional tool rather than a final destination. Women are present in numbers but their autonomy of action remains limited by partisan apparatuses that position them. In companies the situation is even more concerning with women holding less than 1 percent of executive positions compared to a global average of 3.3 percent and a MENA regional average of 2.8 percent. The chapter also points to the non-activation of APALD, the Authority for Parity and Fight against All Forms of Discrimination, provided for by article 19 of the 2011 Constitution, which deprives female representation of an institutional lever.

Chekrouni identifies APALD activation as the condition for all other recommendations, capable of transforming a constitutional right into an operational mechanism with competencies, budget, and monitoring power. Additional measures include generalizing gender-responsive budgeting, reforming school curricula, ensuring rural women's access to land since they produce 60 percent of agricultural wealth in their zones but own less than 1 percent of land, and adopting a transversal gender approach across all public policies. These challenges emerge within a broader context where human rights organizations highlight persistent obstacles including violence prevention, employment access, and protection of minors against early marriage, with over 60 percent of minor marriage requests receiving judicial authorization and nearly 97 percent of early-married girls dropping out of school.

The latest High Commission for Planning survey on violence against women indicates more than one in two Moroccan women has experienced at least one form of violence during their lifetime. Between legal reforms, public policies, and civil society mobilization, progress is real but insufficient for achieving genuine equality. Immediate APALD activation coupled with firm political will and mobilization of all actors could transform these paradoxes into opportunities, as Morocco now possesses the necessary legal tools and knowledge. The question is no longer what to do but how to implement it with the speed and scale the situation demands.