During the last decades, international organization, in particular the United Nations and its agencies, have undertaken important steps to advance gender parity, yet progress remains slow and uneven across regions. Recent data show that a substantial portion of the global gender gap remains to be closed and yearly improvement is minimal. Participation in the labor market, gender pay gap, and underrepresentation of women in leadership persist at the global level. Employment patterns in academia mirror these broader societal trends: although women increasingly outnumber men in higher education, they remain underrepresented in senior academic roles. Women academics representation in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) universities does not represent an exception. This book investigates gender disparities in academia in five South-Mediterranean Arab countries (Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia) and has two main goals: first, identifying factors that—intersecting with gender—can favor or hamper women’s access to academic careers in the region, and, second, exploring their daily experiences and the challenges they face, particularly with regard to the dual responsibilities of academic work, which require considerable dedication, and family life. In addition, this study focuses on challenges that may stem from cultural expectations and gender stereotypes about women’s role in society. Employing an intersectional framework, the study highlights how family capital (including wasta) influence access and advancement in academia.