An article written by Milad Pournik for the MENA Advocates for Gender Equality (MENA-AGE) Initiative
In this article we consider the historical evolution of gender equality across the MENA region. We should be mindful that sometimes data sources or historians focus on Arab countries rather than including all MENA countries. Moreover, each individual country has its own unique story but the information presented here attempts to capture common dynamics and present average data points.
Women and men have historically assumed different, yet not necessarily unequal, positions in society. Before the first agricultural revolution, men hunted for meat while women gathered vegetables and fruits. After the introduction of new agricultural tools, women became increasingly engaged in daily chores and taking care of children. Much like today, this was seen as less important than the role men played in supplying food to their families.
When we look at the MENA region, we find evidence to dispel commonly held views that women in the region have always been second class citizens. In Arab Women in the Middle Ages, Shirley Guthrie explains how affluent Arab women had more marriage rights than many modern day Arab women. With regards to the impact of Islam on gender equality, the original introduction of Islam in the region afforded women greater rights than they previously had. For example, women were granted the right to withhold consent to marriage. Yet, certain dogmatic interpretations of the Quran were, and continue to be, used to justify discriminatory practices such as child marriage.
Looking at more recent history, Qasim Amin can be partially credited with creating a feminist wave across the region through his 1899 book, The Liberation of Women. Amin argued that in order to gain independence from British rule, the Egyptian nation needed to educate and liberate women. His views were influenced by his extensive contact with Europe and thus are discredited by some for not being organic. Perhaps then we can look to Huda Sha’rawi, who founded the Egyptian Feminist Union and two women’s periodicals before she died in 1947. She was a charismatic and influential gender equality advocate whose ideas travelled across the broader region. After World War II concluded, many Arab States gained independence and subsequently adopted pro-women reforms as part of “modernization” efforts. Yet most of these legal, political, and socioeconomic reforms affected the public rather than the private sphere (UNESCWA 2017).
Mervat Hatem (1993) argues that many of the subsequent “official” women’s organizations that developed in the 1960s and 1970s were discredited because they were seen as co-opted by the state. The 1980s and 1990s witnessed a proliferation in independent women’s organizations as a response. Hatem cites international influence, particularly the United Nations Decade for Women (1975-1985), as a key factor for this. Additionally, Hatem mentions that some of these organizations were created in response to a rising tide of Islamism across the region.
Valentine Moghadam (1998) identifies four factors to explain this phenomenon. First, demographics meant that the region had larger numbers of educated and employed women who were getting married later than their ancestors. Second, “structural adjustment” policies called for a reduction in public spending and thus created a social services deficit that some of these organizations sought to fill. Third, the rise of Islamists regionally, and democracy globally, meant that women had both something to rally against and allies to work with. Fourth, Moghadam supports Hatem’s assertion that international forces were important and identifies the Beijing Conference (1995) as critical in this regard. Although the degree of regional cooperation was limited, in November 1994, a two-week conference of Arab Women’s NGOs held in Amman, culminated in a document called “Work Program for NGOs in the Arab Region”.
What has all this meant for women in the region? Looking at the data we find that the MENA region has achieved considerable progress in health and education outcomes for women and girls. The data also identify a noticeable increase in women’s political representation, although women are still grossly underrepresented in politics compared to other regions. Women have been, and remain, marginalized from paid economic activity, with the region home to the lowest female labor force participation rates in the world.
Reflective of the progress in human development in the region, female life expectancy increased to 73 years in 2010 from 55 years in 1975 (World Bank 2013). Progress in health outcomes is seen when looking at the remarkable 50% decline in maternal mortality rates from 200 deaths per 100,00 live births in 1990 down to 80 deaths in 2015 (UNICEF data, World Bank Open Data). In another positive development, the while the prevalence of child marriage remains high, it has dropped from one in three to one in five over the past 25 years (UNICEF 2018).
Educational gains are also worth highlighting as the region is home to an increasingly educated female population. Indeed, the MENA region has witnessed one of the fastest increases in the world in average years of schooling for girls aged 15-19 from 3.5 years to 8.1 years between 1980 and 2010 (World Bank 2013). While literacy among Arab adult women has increased from 31% in 1978 to 66% in 2016, it still remains below the developing nations’ average. Still, these educational gains are not reflected in a commensurate increase in female labor force participation rate, hence the so-called ‘MENA Paradox’. From 1995 to 2015 the MENA region only witnessed a 3% point increase in female labor force participation, which now stands at a mere 23%.
A key mechanism for change can be through political channels. Indeed, looking at Arab states we find increasing use of quotas in parliaments and other elected bodies to address the gross underrepresentation of women in politics (UNESCWA 2016). These measures can help to partially explains why the region has experienced the largest growth rate of women’s participation in single or lower houses in the world. This rate increased to 17.8% in 2013 from 6% in 2003 (Atlas of Electoral Gender Quotas).
History has shown that contrary to common belief, the region is not allergic to recognizing the important role women play in society. Nevertheless, gender inequality concerns have traditionally taken a back seat to “more urgent” issues such as civil war, unemployment, and corruption. Recent developments have created the foundations for greater gender equality across the MENA region. There are now more educated, politically active, and healthy women in the region than ever before. While there remains much work to be done to achieve genuine gender equality, we have good reasons to remain hopeful that the current positive trajectory can be continued, and even accelerated.
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