Improvement In Women's Status Research Articles

CHANGING GENDER RELATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT IN YEMEN: EDUCATION, FAMILY, HEALTH AND FERTILITY, CULTURAL EXPRESSION

This study undertakes an innovative approach to confound the public-private paradigm prevalent which predominates in the literature on women and community in the developing world. It utilizes the concept of life options as formulated by Janet Z. Giele—which serves as the dependent variables in the analysis. Women's roles and status—as measured by these life options—are seen as structurally determined by state ideology (regime orientations and juridical system), level and type of economic development, and class location. The hypothesis to be tested is that, in an underdeveloped nation such as Yemen with a conservative, shah'a-based personal status law and a minuscule middle class, the status of women will be low on the dimensions of the life options examined—education, family, health and fertility, and cultural expression. The conclusion confirms what the development literature would lead the researcher to expect: a convergence of conservative cultural norms embodied in state policy, low economic development, and a diminutive middle class containing few women accounts for little improvement in women's status on the designated indicator in Yemen in recent years.

The Debt Crisis, Structural Adjustment and Women's Education

The debt crisis and structural adjustment policies have created severe hardship in many countries and may be especially harmful for women. This paper discusses the possible deleterious effects of these macroeconomic conditions on women's quality of life in general and their status in terms of education, employment and health. Then it provides a quantitative cross-national analysis to assess the impact of the debt crisis and structural adjustment on women's status. It finds evidence that structural adjustment policies have a negative effect on female educational enrollments. Education is found to be an important determinant of women's economic activity and health status. Based on these findings, the article maintains that the macroeconomic crisis does not augur well for continued social development and the improved status of women in indebted countries.

Egypt's Other Political Elite

This study focuses on the character of the post-1952 female public leadership, the successors to feminist Hoda Sha'rawi. Interviews were conducted with forty-five women, including Madame Sadat, who either belong to the governing elite, or who have become leaders among and for women. These women contribute in different ways to the improvement of women's status, including engaging in efforts to improve women's, as well as men's, socioeconomic conditions, pressing publicly for improvement in women's legal status through law reform, and assuming leadership positions in a male-dominated world, serving as role models for other women. Among the women who achieve national public importance, some do so for their social feminism and others for their political feminism. In some cases, women's social feminism has been politicized by their assumption of leadership roles. Examination is made of these women's backgrounds, personalities, and the environmental factors contributing to their assumption of public service roles. Are there particular factors which lead to the assumption of particular kinds of roles? Can one credit these leaders with having an impact on the status of women?