Multiple Role Combination of Egyptian Working Women: Balancing between Tradition and Modernity

“Did you know that nobody ever asked me about my opinion or how I experience this situation? Because everybody considers this as normal.” -Amany- This qualitative study aims to gather insights on how higher educated working women in Cairo manage to combine their working role with their family-related roles. This idea arose after reading the Arab Human Development Reports (AHDR) of the United Nations. The development and empowerment of women in Arab regions is one of the main issues in this series of reports. The United Nations (2002-2006, AHDR) identified the economic participation of Arab women as one of the millennium goals in order to help develop Arab states into more prosperous and stable regions with social equality. An impressive increase in the educational levels of Arab women has led to Arab women gaining viable potential as a workforce. Recently, an increasing amount of Arab women are increasingly entering the labour market but their labour participation remain low when compared to international levels. Causes for this can be found in cultural, religious and economical factors. In Arab societies, the women’s primary role is still commonly perceived as one where she is committed to the household and care of children. This traditional role of women represents a source of conflict for the educated women, who are highly conscious in keeping a balance between the modern world of work and traditional influences about family life. Within this context it will be interesting to formulate the following research thesis: How do university graduated upper- and upper-middle class Egyptian working women in prestigious or well-paid jobs manage to combine their working role with their family-related roles? This subject of study has attracted interest only since recently. Few articles, books or documents can be found relating to this subject. Even the specialized library of the National Council of Women in Cairo, is poor in its collection illustrating the understudied nature of this subject. Therefore, this study will be a modest attempt in exploring the meaning and consequences of economical progress for women within a society that values the roles of women within the boundaries of the family. The confrontations of women within existing social structures, ideological role expectations and their daily experiences in Egyptian society are the central approaches of this study. The ‘perception versus experience’ theory unveils the difference between the way women perceive their own roles within the existing structure of existing role expectations and the experience of these roles in their every day lives. Though a small minority of women is able to remove themselves from existing ideological role expectations and social structures, because of exclusive family situations, the majority of women choose for moderate role changes in line with existing Egyptian social structures and role expectations. Women do make slight and modest shifts with regard to their multiple roles. Women simultaneously reject certain role aspects while supporting and maintaining others: a puzzling way of combining their multiple roles. However by doing so, it enables the women to reconcile their traditional and professional roles in an ideological context where the traditional roles of women are highly valued. The justification of their role performance is organised differently in comparison with Western societies. This study attempts to provide insights on the differences between the ideological justification of roles between the West and an Arab country as Egypt.