Women and Family in Development Plans in the Arab East

Abstract

The role of women and the family in development in the Middle East is complex and often misunderstood. Some westerners regard Arab women as an untapped resource others do not see their possible participation at any level in development. A primary Middle Eastern assumption is that the survival of the family is of primary importance no matter who the breadwinner is. Western capitalist society on the other hand assumes that general economic good results from competition and struggle in labor and production outside the home and that women must join this. In fact women and children in Middle Eastern society always participated in the labor market. They labor in area industries in the home and in the informal sector of the economy without which labor in the modern economy could not proceed. Ethnocentrism hinders development plans. The Western definition of labor and production as wage labor outside the home ignores the paid and unpaid labor of women and men in agriculture and domestic production. Official statistics on labor force participation do not include the informal sector. The Western model of industrial development does not fit what is actually happening in employment in the Middle East. Middle Easterners themselves are beginning to criticize this Western-oriented development approach. Women do a great deal of physical labor in the Middle East partly due to male labor migration to the Gulf region. Development plans have ignored the problems of female-headed families. Although development plans are affected by political and economic factors more flexibility a less ethnocentric approach more accurate reporting on women and the family a recognition of the possibilities in indigenous institutions and a willingness to adapt and revise programs would enable development plans to help people.