IS PAID WORK THE (ONLY) ANSWER? NEOLIBERALISM, ARAB WOMEN'S WELL-BEING, AND THE SOCIAL CONTRACT

Abstract

South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA),1 attention has been drawn to the low rates of paid employment among women (Moghadam and Khoury 1995; Olmsted 1999; World Bank 2004b), with the argument often being made that this is an indication ofwomen'sunderutilizationand vulnerability. While not disagreeing that access to paid employment may create more options for women, following work by other feminist economists, in this paper I argue that concluding that increases in women's paid employment necessarily will be linked to an improvement in women's economic status is problematic, particularlygivengender roleexpectations,which in turn lead to an asymmetrical distribution ofreproductivelabor in SWANA (as well as elsewhere).A growing literature points out that paid employment for women is no panacea, either for women themselves or for society in general. Even when they enter paid employment, women often remain more economically vulnerable than men, not only because they face discrimination and exploitative work conditions, but also because societies continue to assign them the generallyunremunerated economic role ofreproductive labor. An examination ofthe factors that shape the and safety nets thus is needed, to gauge how the social contract addresses reproductive