No Subject

Apologies for cross posting.

Fu'ad, this article provides a partial response to your question about
the social status of Arab women and the recent economic restructuring in
the Middle East..

Mine

Al-Ahram Weekly
11 - 17 May 2000
Issue No. 481

http://www.allnewspapers.com/middeast/

Women's work

     By Fatemah Farag

It is 7.00am in front of a ready-made garments
factory in Shubra Al-Kheima. Droves of young women, clutching
little money purses tightly in their hands are making their
way through the factory gates to begin a long day's work. "We
must be at our machines at 7:30am and work goes on to seven
or eight at night. Each one of us is responsible for a specific
section in the garment, such as a hem or a button, and I
usually process 700 to 800 pieces per day and make between one to
two piastres a piece," explained 23-year-old Fatheya.

      Fatheya is part of a new generation of women
workers who
     have found job opportunities in the new private sector textile
factories. "It is good to have
     the opportunity to make some money, but I hope that once I am
married my husband will
     make enough money to keep me at home. My back hurts all the time
from bending over the
     machine for such long hours," she said.

     According to the most recent Human Development Report issued by the
UN, in
     1998/1999, women constituted 15 per cent of the labour force. This
indicates a decline
     from figures published by the Central Authority for Mobilisation
and Statistics (CAPMAS)
     in 1996, which show that, between 1984 and 1994, women represented
22 per cent of the labour force. Further, according to the 1996 Labour
Sample Survey, issued by CAPMAS, the highest unemployment rates are
among women. The survey documented that between 1988 and 1995, for every
five unemployed men, there were 20  unemployed women.

     "The highest unemployment rates are among women despite the
government's policy to encourage women's work.
     The general environment is against her working and reflects a very
different attitude from that of the sixties, when
     women were very much encouraged to become prominent players in
development," said Aisha Abdel-Hadi,
     member of the executive council of the General Federation of Trade
Unions (GFTU) for women's affairs.

     The context of this change in attitude is provided by Fardos
El-Bahnasi, social researcher and director of the
     Women's Development and Empowerment Association in the working
class district of Manshiet Nasser. "When
     women were encouraged to work in the sixties, social services to
help her out in her role within the family were not
     provided. The result was that women took on a double burden. This
has not been a positive experience and young
     girls who have seen their mothers carry this burden will feel that
the better option is to choose only one of these
     roles," explained El-Bahnasi. Add this to working conditions such
as those described by Fatheya and the attitude
     cannot be expected to be very positive.

     But, of course, what drives people into the job market is not so
much prevalent attitudes as material need.
     According to official statistics, the largest percentage of women's
work is in the informal agricultural sector, while 32
     per cent is in the government, with the private sector accounting
for only 16 per cent. "Much of women's work is
     unpaid, such as when she works in agricultural fields for the
family. It is also difficult to determine the exact number
     of women actually working outside the home," explained Samia Assal
of the Union for Agricultural Workers.

     El-Bahnasi adds that even in the formal sectors, since employers do
not always register the total number of workers
     to evade social security payments, the figures available are bound
to be inconclusive. "Still, we can see that there are
     factories, such as those for ready-made garments, which employ
women almost exclusively. These are the women
     who are driven onto the job market as a result of extreme poverty,"
said El-Bahnasi. Abdel-Hadi completes the
     description of the vicious circle faced by female labourers, "With
high unemployment in women's ranks and because
     of their need, there is bound to be violation of the law which
stipulates equal wages, social and health insurance for
     both genders."

     The women interviewed by Al-Ahram Weekly on their way to work in
Shubra Al-Kheima had not heard of legal
     protection, or even the GFTU, for that matter. "In the security
room, there is a framed copy of the Ministerial
     Regulation for Women's Work. It has nothing to do with our lives,"
one said.

     El-Bahnasi points out that women are treated as inferior on the job
because they are, for the most part, unskilled
     labour and also because their work is considered only a supplement
to family income. "This last point is of particular
     importance since official statistics show that one quarter of women
in Egypt are the sole supporters of their families,"
     she said.

--

Mine Aysen Doyran
PhD Student
Department of Political Science
SUNY at Albany
Nelson A. Rockefeller College
135 Western Ave.; Milne 102
Albany, NY 12222