This study questions the impact of the absence of young women from the workplace in the MENA region, at all the working levels. It emphasizes the potential and the economic benefits of increasing women´s employment in the region. The study furthermore seeks to understand the expectations of young women around recruitment, and recommends four promising areas for reducing barriers to work: enhancing young women’s pathways to a job; equipping job seekers with the right skills and expectations; focusing workplace benefits and policies on what really matters to young women and increasing the demand for women employees in the workplace.