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Women's Empowerment in Academia - Women Studies Unit
At first,
Dr. Sahar Abdel-Khaleq wanted to mention her story when she was asked to
define herself before participating in this
seminar. The first thing that she said "I am a mother" because one of
the important research questions that she put was the effect of gender
on the social role, so should we work in the house or outside it. And
she wanted to discuss the surrounding environment effects whether in the
traditional or modernist society. The study was based on field work
mainly and it was a critical study.
The study focused on the middle class,
so the division based on a horizontal variation. The societies were
divided into rural societies, urban societies, rural urban societies and
urban rural societies. Cultural beliefs, the building styles, the
environment and the economic system and administrative system were
presented.
In rural society the administration is
rural and the economy has a living style and is linked to the idea of
having children as a workforce in the family to be more specific they
mean boys, which made them believe that males are preferred over
females. The mother works, but it is not like the civilized societies,
and there is no freedom of movement, this varies between the valley and
the delta, so we find that in Upper Egypt more they are conservative
than the delta, as there is more freedom of movement in the delta.
In the
countryside the economic empowerment is less than the modernist society,
in addition to women must satisfy all parties until they reach the stage
of giving up their needs and placing them within the frame of the
half-god. In such societies, the mechanism for empowering the woman is
to have sons or to depend on them as belonging to an ancient family;
extended family culture is also rooted which is necessary to take care
of children during the work of the mother.
In civilized societies, the nature of
administration is civil, and the economy is essentially consumerist,
there was no extended family culture as independence of culture is
rooted so that put a burden on working women in addition to the
existence of more freedom of movement, but it might take from women
their humanity and affect her role as a mother. But at the end the work
of women in modern society is the mechanism of empowerment and the
source of strength for women. The building style has modern nature as
it’s always related to the culture rooted in the society, so we find
that if the modern style is applied in the countryside, for example, it
will make dissatisfaction that may lead to leaving these homes empty.
Mixed societies, which are either urban
or rural, they are the most common. They differ from pure civil society
or pure rural in the percentage of mixing between the two societies.
Each one of the mixed societies tends towards one of the two models, but
each of them combines the characteristics of civil and rural society.
In these societies, there is no fixed
rule, women must be multi tasked and she always feels guilty and
deficient, and this feeling increase by being a mother.
Dr. Sahar concluded the seminar with a
discussion between her and the audience. The most important thing was
mentioning that this division should be modified to include all the
vertical layers and not only a horizontal division because social
differences play an important role in shaping awareness and culture
At the end, Dr. Sahar mentioned that
there is a suggestion to help women working in the research field as a
start. In case they succeeded, expansions will be made and it will be
generalized to the rest of the professions.
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