Defiance and Compliance : : Negotiating Gender in Low-Income Cairo / / Heba El-Kholy.

• VerfasserIn: El-Kholy, Heba,
• Place / Publishing House: New York; , Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2002]; ©2002
• Year of Publication: 2002
• Language: English
• Series: New Directions in Anthropology ; 15
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (290 p.)

The gap between rich and poor is widening in most countries, putting more pressure on women in particular who often find themselves with the ultimate responsibility to provide for their families, especially their children, in the face of economic and political discrimination. Based on participant observation and in-depth interviews in four low-income neighborhoods in Cairo, this book offers rich, novel and intimate data relating to poor women's lives and everyday forms of resistance to gender inequalities in the labor market and at home. In contrast to the common stereotype of Middle Eastern women as totally oppressed and devoid of agency, this study shows the complex and diverse ways in which low-income women devise strategies to contest existing gender arrangements and improve their situation. It is a significant contribution to current debates about poverty, gender, power, and resistance.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- A NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION -- INTRODUCTION: A PERSONAL TRAJECTORY -- 1 RETHINKING APPROACHES TO RESISTANCE, POWER AND GENDER RELATIONS: TOWARDS A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK -- 2 THE MACROCONTEXT: AN OVERVIEW OF SOCIOPOLITICAL AND ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATIONS IN EGYPT -- 3 THE RESEARCH SETTING AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE STUDY COMMUNITY -- 4 ETHNOGRAPHY IN ONE’S NATIVE CITY: RESEARCH APPROACH, METHODS, AND FIELDWORK ENCOUNTERS -- 5 PREMARITAL STANDARDS AND EXPECTATIONS -- 6 MARRIAGE TRANSACTIONS AND NEGOTIATIONS -- 7 DEFIANCE AND ACQUIESCENCE IN THE LABOR MARKET -- 8 CONJUGAL ARRANGEMENTS AND SEXUALITY -- 9 INTRAHOUSEHOLD DECISIONS AND EXTRAHOUSEHOLD NETWORKS -- CONCLUSION: TOWARD AN “ORGANIC FEMINISM” -- TABLES -- MAP -- APPENDICES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX