Who Enters, Who Stays, Who Leaves: Gender, Family, and Merit in Algerian Elite Institutions

The recent removal of Algeria’s gender quota has reignited debates about merit, family responsibilities, and women’s participation in elite institutions. However, the question is not only who can enter these spaces, but who can remain and advance within them. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with women working in politics, healthcare, education, and law, this paper examines how professional trajectories are shaped by overlapping expectations of domestic care, religious norms, and institutional practices. Many women report limiting or leaving their careers in order to balance work and family responsibilities, while some unmarried women anticipate withdrawing from the workforce after marriage, citing both religious obligations and social expectations. At the same time, domestic roles are framed as requiring education and competence, highlighting a paradox in which merit is simultaneously expected and restricted. Using a postcolonial feminist perspective, I argue that merit functions within a neopatriarchal system influenced by colonial legacies and authoritarian governance. In this system, institutional inclusion does not automatically translate into real opportunities for women. By examining both entry and retention in professional spaces, this study shows how gendered norms and structural inequalities shape the limits of merit, revealing the ongoing tension between policy reforms, societal expectations, and women’s agency in Algeria.