Negotiating Labor Under Patriarchal Pandemic Conditions: Female NEET in Tunisia

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A quarter of Tunisia's population are youth not in education, employment or training (NEET), and particularly vulnerableto frustration, social isolation and political protest (World Bank 2014; Maguire 2015). It is estimated that the number ofyouth NEET will rise dramatically as COVID-19 shocks to the global and Tunisian economy hit youth the hardest (OECD2020). Growing interest in interdisciplinary research reveals the drawbacks to approaching contemporary unemploymentissues with simplified economic solutions, creating a need for the application of interdisciplinary thinking to fully addressthe complexity of the youth experience in relation to work (Huang 2016; Kareem 2011, Elyachar 2005; Zouari 2014;Kabbani 2019). As humanitarian institutions pursue decent work goals in the midst of pandemic recovery, the question ofhow and by what means women negotiate mobility through socio-spatial boundaries has become an important researchfocus for the field of international development. Responding to the need to integrate youth perspectives in policyformation on unemployment and underemployment (Barford and Coombe 2019; Barford and Cieslik 2019; O'Higgins2017; Restless Development 2019), this study utilizes 'NEET' as a research category and explores multiplepositionalities relating to work among women in Tunisia, aiming to provide a more thorough analysis of the perspectivesof female youth NEET with regards to their relationship with employment.