How far does neoliberalism go in Egypt? Gender, citizenship and the making of the ‘rural’ woman

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper focuses on civil society in Egypt as a site in which the ‘Egyptian rural woman’ is made by looking at processes of microfinance which often ‘fail’ to realise their stated goals of ‘empowerment’, ‘poverty alleviation’ or ‘social mobility’. Using ethnographic material from a microfinance programme in the Egyptian governorate of al-Minya, such programmes are problematised beyond their stated goals. Instead, such initiatives put in place an infrastructure that links micro-borrowers to the market. Thus, what it means to be a ‘liberated’ woman in the Egyptian context is built on access, participation in and creation of ‘the market’.