Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East (Women and Change in the Developing World)

Exploring the impact of social change in the Middle East on women's status and roles, as well as women's varied responses, this book focuses on the gender dynamics of some of the major social processes in the region: economic development and women's employment, reforms and revolutions, the changing family, and Islamist movements. In doing so, it reveals that middle class women are at the centre of change and discourses about the change in the region. Moghadam crafts a conceptual framework based on the role of the state, development strategies, class, and culture in the shaping of women's lives. Writing from a Marxist-feminist perspective, she looks at the salience of the "woman question" and constructions of gender in the midst of social and political change. Data from a number of countries are presented, including in-depth case studies of Afghanistan and Iran.