North Africa

Citation:

Khattabi, Abdellatif, Manar Matah, and Soumaya Ibrahim Huber. 2014. “Gender inequality in the context of climate change: The case of the Boudinar commune in Morocco.” In Gender Research in Natural Resource Management: Building capacities in the Middle East and North Africa, edited by Malika Abdelali-Martini and Aden Aw-Hassan, 128-165. New York: Routledge.

Authors: Abdellatif Khattabi, Manar Matah, Soumaya Ibrahim Huber

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality Regions: Africa, MENA, North Africa Countries: Morocco

Year: 2014

Citation:

Khattabi, Abdellatif, Soumaya Ibrahim Huber, Naima Faouzi, and Manar Matah. 2014. “The Effects of Changes in Climate and Water Resources on Gender Inequality in Boudinar Community in Morocco: The Case Study Approach.” In Gender Research in Natural Resource Management: Building capacities in the Middle East and North Africa, edited by Malika Abdelali-Martini and Aden Aw-Hassan, 166-186. New York: Routledge. 

Authors: Abdellatif Khattabi, Soumaya Ibrahim Huber, Naima Faouzi, Manar Matah

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation Regions: Africa, MENA, North Africa Countries: Morocco

Year: 2014

Citation:

Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Elena. 2010. “‘Ideal’ Refugee Women and Gender Equality Mainstreaming in the Sahrawi Refugee Camps: ‘Good Practice’ for Whom?” Refugee Survey Quarterly 29 (2): 64–84. 

Author: Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh

Abstract:

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Executive Committee and the Refugee Women and Gender Equality Unit within the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have both asserted that the Algerian-based National Union of Sahrawi Women is an “ideal” partner by virtue of its success in mainstreaming gender equality and empowering Sahrawi refugee women. In this article, I examine the nature and implications of this idealization of the protracted Sahrawi refugee camps, arguing that international celebrations of the National Union of Sahrawi Women and the refugee women it purports to represent have directly influenced the development of projects in the camps that marginalize the needs and priorities of “non-ideal” women and girls with grave effects. As such, I suggest that while refugees and their political representatives may formally adopt donors’ rhetoric and preferences vis-à-vis gender equality mainstreaming, such strategies may facilitate and solidify processes of exclusion and marginalization in different contexts of displacement. Concurrently, this leads us to ask who benefits from assertions and categorizations of “good” and “bad” practice, and whose interests are advanced by discourses surrounding “gender equality”.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Refugee/IDP Camps, Gender, Women, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Discourses, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Organizations Regions: Africa, MENA, North Africa Countries: Algeria

Year: 2010

Citation:

Caraway, Teri L. 2009. “Comparative Political Economy, Gender, and Labor Markets.” Politics & Gender 5 (4): 568-575. doi:10.1017/S1743923X09990389.

Author: Teri L. Caraway

Abstract:

The publication in 2008 of Michael Ross’s “Oil, Islam, and Women” by the discipline’s flagship journal, the American Political Science Review, is a welcome development. It is the first empirical work with a primary focus on gender and political economy ever published in the journal and portends well for the development of research that focuses on such questions. My essay has two foci. The first is a critical engagement with Ross’s analysis of why oil production negatively affects women’s employment prospects. The second is how to further develop the study of gender in the comparative political economy of labor markets.

Annotation:

Quotes:

“Ross’s definition of the workforce excludes the informal sector and agricultural jobs. This analytic move is unfortunately not justified. Since his analysis excludes parts of the economy that employ a significant proportion of women, the full extent of oil’s impact on women’s employment prospects is unclear. For example, one implication of his argument about the contraction of formal-sector employment opportunities for women in oil economies is that women may be forced into the informal sector; their opportunities in agriculture might also shrink, since it is a tradable sector.” (569)

“The way that gender shapes the demand side of employment is undertheorized in his account. Although Dutch disease discourages investment in manufacturing, some oil producers do develop a manufacturing base. Investments are overwhelmingly in inward- oriented and capital-intensive industries, however, which generate little employment and overwhelmingly hire male labor. Yet when inward- oriented labor-intensive industries expand in this context, they can generate substantial female employment.” (569-70)

“Since oil-intensive growth is capital-intensive and creates few jobs, a minority of male workers actually secure the well-paid jobs connected to it, resulting in high levels of income inequality and, often, high levels of male unemployment. Under such conditions, women do not need to be offered very high wages to entice them into the workforce. In other words, the main constraint on women’s employment in oil economies is not that employers do not offer wages high enough to entice women into the workforce but that employers usually do not want to hire women in the first place.” (570)

“The low demand for women’s labor is unlikely to change in oil-based economies until they diversify in ways that develop labor-intensive industries, and this usually only happens once oil revenues fall into secular decline.” (570)

“Economists and sociologists have offered a variety of explanations for women’s concentration in labor-intensive sectors of manufacturing. The three most common are strength, wages, and skill, and they often appear together… If this story is correct, women’s employment in manufacturing should show little variation across time and space because women everywhere are assumed to be the same: cheap, weaker than men, and less committed to work.2 Yet the contours of segregation between men and women in manufacturing change across time, both within and across industries.” (571-2)

Topics: Economies, Extractive Industries, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Livelihoods, Political Economies Regions: Africa, MENA, North Africa, Asia, Middle East

Year: 2009

Citation:

Assaad, Ragui. 2004. “Why Did Economic Liberalization Lead to Feminization of the Labor Force in Morocco and De-Feminization in Egypt?” Paper presented at the Mediterranean Development Forum of the Center of Arab Women Training and Research, November.

Author: Ragui Assaad

Annotation:

"I. Introduction

The international literature on economic liberalization and gender emphasizes the strong link between the labor market deregulation and informalization that accompany economic liberalization processes and labor force feminization (Standing 1989, 1999; Cerruti, 2000; Cagatay, Elson and Grown, 1995; Valodia, 2001). Official structural adjustment programs and unofficial, but typically state-supported, erosions of worker protection policies are associated with the absolute and relative growth of the female labor force in the developing world. According to the literature, the feminization trend has permeated all the regions of the developing world with the possible exception of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), which has seen its share of women in the labor force stagnate over the liberalization period (Horton 1999). Within MENA, Morocco and Tunisia stand out as exceptions that conform to the feminization trend observed elsewhere in the developing world (Moghadam 1998). A number of arguments have been advanced to explain the low and stagnant female labor force participation rates in MENA, including the obvious argument that cultural and social norms hinder women’s participation in paid work outside the home. 

The purpose of this paper is to explain the different trajectories followed by Egypt and Morocco with regards to feminization of the labor force. While both have experienced significant informalization of their labor markets, Morocco has undergone noteworthy feminization of its work force, while Egypt (excepting the civil service) has largely de-feminized. Both Egypt and Morocco have embarked on stabilization and adjustment programs since the 1970s. Since then, employment opportunities in public service have been curtailed, although more so in the case of Morocco. Both countries share a similar cultural heritage, so that norms about gender roles, in general, and women’s work, in particular, should be fairly similar in both contexts. Explanations for their divergent paths with regard to feminization need to be sought, in my view, in the different economic conditions faced by each country. 

Because the international literature makes an explicit connection between female paid employment and economic liberalization and structural adjustment, the focus in this paper is on that, rather than on employment as a whole. Moreover, because both countries have been attempting to constrain the growth their civil service in recent years, albeit with less success in Egypt than in Morocco, I focus on non-governmental wage employment, which includes employment in the private sector and in State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). Since the start of liberalizing reforms in the 1970s, SOEs have gradually been given increasing autonomy in hiring, wage-setting, and in general operations, so that by the 1990s it increasingly makes sense to lump them with private enterprises, as the non-governmental sector, rather than with the civil service, as the public sector.

This paper will explore the different economic trajectories in the two countries in terms of the change of the sectoral composition of employment and how the female share in each sector changed over time. I will also explore the differences in institutional arrangements and macroeconomic conditions that encouraged feminization (or defeminization) in each country, with particular examination of hypotheses concerning how the structure of foreign exchange revenues has affected household labor decisions and the demand for female labor” (Assad, 2004, p. 2-3).

Topics: Development, Economies, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Femininity/ies, Gender Balance, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, MENA, North Africa, Middle East Countries: Egypt, Morocco

Year: 2004

Citation:

Berkovitch, Nitza, and Valentine M. Moghadam. 1999. “Middle East Politics and Women’s Collective Action: Challenging the Status Quo.” Social Politics 6 (3): 273-91.

Authors: Nitza Berkovitch, Valentine M. Moghadam

Abstract:

The Middle East and North Africa have long been associated with conflict, fundamentalism, and patriarchy. We question the stereotypes, drawing attention to the gendered nature of social politics in the region and to the growing visibility of feminism and women's movements. After examining the ways in which feminists and women's groups have been challenging patriarchal arrangements and the political status quo, we offer five theoretical propositions to guide further research into gender and politics in countries of the Middle East and North Africa.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy Regions: Africa, MENA, North Africa, Asia, Middle East

Year: 1999

Citation:

Vince, Natalya. 2010. “Transgressing Boundaries: Gender, Race, Religion, and ‘Francaises Musulmanes’ during the Algerian War of Independence.” French Historical Studies 33 (3): 445-74. doi:10.1215/00161071-2010-005.

Author: Natalya Vince

Abstract:

Taking the example of women active in the Algerian National Liberation Front during the War of Independence, this article examines how different typologies of “the Muslim woman” were challenged, subverted, and reconfigured between 1954 and 1962. The article looks at how women who did not conform to colonial gendered ethnoreligious stereotypes came to threaten the continuing existence of French Algeria both on the ground and on the international stage. It then turns to consider the sexual abuse and rape that women often experienced when captured by the French army. Finally, the article examines the relationship between women, Islamic principles, and the independence movement. Based on extensive interviews with female participants in the war, the article focuses throughout on women's appropriation and subversion of assigned roles and assumptions. A central concern is to compare the analytic categories of “gender” and “race” with the frames of reference these women use to articulate their own lives.

Topics: Armed Conflict, National Liberation Wars, Gender, Women, Race, Religion Regions: Africa, MENA, North Africa Countries: Algeria

Year: 2010

Citation:

Turshen, Meredeth. 2002. “Algerian Women in the Liberation Struggle and the Civil War: From Active Participants to Passive Victims?” Social Research 69 (3): 889-911.

Author: Meredeth Turshen

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, National Liberation Wars, Gender, Women Regions: Africa, MENA, North Africa Countries: Algeria

Year: 2002

Citation:

Gilman, Sarah E. 2007. “Feminist Organizing in Tunisia: Negotiating Transnational Linkages and the State.” In From Patriarchy to Empowerment: Women’s Participation, Movements, and Rights in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia, edited by Valentine M. Moghadam, 97–119. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.

Author: Sarah E. Gilman

Topics: Feminisms, Political Participation Regions: Africa, MENA, North Africa Countries: Tunisia

Year: 2007

Citation:

Al-Ali, Nadje. 2003. “Gender and Civil Society in the Middle East.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 5 (2): 216–32.

Author: Nadje Al-Ali

Abstract:

This article explores the aims, activities and challenges of women's movements in the Middle East. It demonstrates the similarities among movements, which are related to both the historical emergence of women's movements, and in particular their close affiliation to nationalist struggles, as well as contemporary circumstances such as ambiguous government policies, repression of civil societies and prevailing authoritarian political cultures. This contribution also looks to the specific factors and conditions that shape women's movements in particular countries differently, thereby highlighting the great degree of heterogeneity among women's organizations in the Middle East. An analysis of the actual goals and activities of women's groups in various countries, such as Jordan, Egypt and Palestine reveals that women activists tend to get mobilized around issues related to modernization and development. Issues such as women's rights to education, work and political participation have traditionally been both the accepted demands of women activists as well as part of the discourses of male modernizers and reformers. However, the more sensitive issues of women's reproductive rights and violence against women, for example, have been taken up by only a few women's organizations in recent years. The relationship of women's organizations to the state is key to the analysis of women's movements in the region. Varying levels of dependence and autonomy can be detected not only in the comparison of one country with another but also within given country contexts.

Topics: Civil Society, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Nationalism, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, MENA, North Africa, Asia, Middle East Countries: Egypt, Jordan, Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2003