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CHANGING GENDER RELATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT IN YEMEN: EDUCATION, FAMILY, HEALTH AND FERTILITY, CULTURAL EXPRESSION
Author(s) -
Riphenbur Carol J.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
southeastern political review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1747-1346
pISSN - 0730-2177
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-1346.2000.tb00797.x
Subject(s) - ideology , middle class , fertility , state (computer science) , convergence (economics) , socioeconomic status , political science , gender studies , economic growth , sociology , development economics , demography , law , population , economics , algorithm , politics , computer science
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.