Facebook’s Role in Empowering Egyptian Women During COVID-19: Case of the 2020 Parliamentary Elections
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Spring 4-29-2023
Abstract
In Egypt, the influence of new media, primarily Facebook, has noticeably risen to impact political development. In the last few years, Facebook overrode traditional media, especially television, as the primary source of information. Therefore, it can play an essential role in shaping ideas and values and be a powerful tool to mobilise actions such as visiting election polls. This study’s main objective is to understand the political impact of Facebook on Egyptian women by examining their reliance on Facebook to make political decisions. Besides, Facebook’s role in mobilising women voters in the 2020 elections will also be examined. This study aims to answer three chief questions: To what extent did Facebook contribute to empowering women in the 2020 elections? Has it replaced traditional media in promoting political participation? Was the COVID-19 pandemic one of the factors that led or paved the way to heavier reliance on social networks, including Facebook?
This study argues that women in Egypt rely on Facebook as a primary source of information and are thus motivated to act in line with the mainstream public opinions at any given point in time. This fact was heavily utilised by women candidates running in the 2020 parliamentary elections. To test this argument and for research purposes, this study limits the scope of research to the Suez Canal region. The rest of the study is organised as follows: The first section presents the conceptual and theoretical framework. This is followed by a brief examination of the data collection and methodology used. We report the main empirical results before drawing conclusions and making prudent policy recommendations for public policy decision-makers in Egypt. These suggestions put forward the importance of considering Facebook as an agenda-setting tool and highlight its role in public policy implementation.
Recommended Citation
Khodair, A. & Abdelall, R. (2023). Facebook’s Role in Empowering Egyptian Women During COVID-19: Case of the 2020 Parliamentary Elections. In L.Skalli & N. El-Tantawi (Eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Gender, Media and Communication in the Middle East and North Africa. DOI:10.1007/978-3-031-11980-4