Engendering Citizenship in Egypt

This is an examination of the concept of citizenship in Egypt, identifying the forces that have institutionally controlled women since the turn of the 20th century. The book examines how, and by whom this citizenship is defined, and seeks to understand how political culture in Egypt has developed, how women have asserted themselves in public life and how they have been limited and sometimes excluded from the political process. The author demonstrates that women's social inferiority derives from law and custom, but points out that slow industrialization contributes to inequality in the workplace. Three areas of interaction in Egypt are considered: the social organization of power; the ideological and institutional means of controlling women sexually; and the sexual division of labour. These topics are used to highlight the complexity and interdependence of men's and women's activities and offer insight into the nature of political organization. The book offers a decade-by-decade survey, beginning with Egypt's independence from British rule, and traces the entrenched system of male hegemony in household and state.