Arab Society in Revolt: The West's Mediterranean Challenge

3. The Changing Role of Women in Society

In January–February 2011, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt were overthrown by unprecedented mass mobilizations . Inspired by the Tunisian and the Egyptian revolutions, a wave of popular protest has spread to other Arab countries, although, apart from Libya, incumbent regimes are still in place. Contrary to the widespread view that Arab women are passive victims in their societies, they have played a prominent role in this large movement of protests, contributing as key actors of change. Women’s massive participation in the so-called Arab Spring is emblematic of the direction and extent of gender role changes in the Arab region, in general, and in the North African (NA) region, in particular, over the last few decades. Unsustainable socioeconomic conditions combined with a lack of political freedoms and repression lie at the root of the mass protests across the Arab world. As far as women are concerned, their political and economic exclusion, particularly among the young, has been even deeper than that of men. While women in NA societies have made considerable progress with regard to education and fertility rates, as this chapter shows, their integration into the economic sphere and formal political structures has been much slower. However, women’s political agency in the public sphere is not a new phenomenon in this region. Over the decades, NA women, in growing numbers , have made their voices heard in various ways, from being active in women’s organizations and in Islamist groups and political parties to participating in more spontaneous expressions of dissent and frustration such as sitins , strikes, and so on. 53 3 The Changing Role of Women in Society maria cristina paciello and renata pepicelli The Arab Spring did not arise from a void but rather built up through a long process of individual and collective awareness of men and women alike, suggesting that women have long been shaping change in the NA region. The revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia came at a time when civil society actors, such as women’s associations, human rights groups, and political opposition forces—including Islamist groups—were increasingly incapable of effecting political and economic change, owing to growing repression as well as internal weaknesses. The absence of large, viable, organized opposition forces and formal channels of political expression, combined with the deteriorating socioeconomic conditions and political repression, explains the spontaneous and broad nature of the mobilizations. Based on these observations, this chapter examines the NA region and assesses the direction and extent of gender changes in the economic and political fields as well as provides a broad overview of women’s activism in its diverse forms, with a particular focus on the Arab Spring.1 North Africa Women: Between Progress and Resistance to Change Over the past decades, women in NA societies have made considerable progress with regard to education and fertility rates. More girls than boys are now receiving secondary and higher education, and other aspects of demographic transition have proceeded rapidly since the early 1990s. Although there are variations across areas of residence and social classes, NA families have undergone important structural transformations: the age of first marriage has increased, family sizes have been reduced, the nuclear model has come to represent the majority of families, the percentage of unmarried women has increased, and a growing number of families are headed by women.2 These achievements, however, have not been accompanied by corresponding improvements in the participation of NA women in the economy. As shown in table 3-1, labor market indicators are comparatively more unfavorable for women in North Africa than in other regions.Yet, while participation of women in the labor force in the NA region has been rising since the 1960s, it remains among the lowest in the world, meaning that most women continue to be outside of the labor market. Together with the Middle East, the NA region also has the lowest employment-to-population ratio for women and the highest female unemployment rate in the world. Moreover, while unem54 maria cristina paciello and renata pepicelli ployment is high for both men and women in the NA region, the gender gap is much wider here than in other regions. The labor market situation in North Africa is even worse for young women (see table 3-2). In particular, in Algeria in 2010, unemployment among young female university graduates was 33.6 percent versus 11.1 percent...