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Another View of Feminine Networks: Tunisian Women and the Development of Political Efficacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Susan E ltzwa
Susan E ltzwa
Affiliation:
Department of International Relations Florida International University
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Extract

Contemporary feminists have stressed the importance of women's networks in empowering women. In the Western context, professional networks, support groups, and the availability of role models are seen to provide a collective basis for the development of confidence and self-esteem as well as a potential base for political action. Feminist attention to the Middle East has uncovered patterns of interaction suggesting that there, too, women have found in feminine networks both the basis for power and the personal attributes that undergird social competence. Aswad, for example, describes the kabul, an upper-class formal visitation network in Turkey with distinct political overtones. Women exchange information that might be dismissed as gossip were it not for the fact that participants are from powerful land-owning families, and the discussions have impact well beyond the immediate setting.1

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , February 1990 , pp. 21 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

NOTES

Author's note: The research for this article was supported by a grant from the American Institute for Maghrebi Studies and by the Florida International University Faculty Development Fund, and writing support came from the McKnight Programs in Higher Education. Field research was facilitated by the Centre d'Etudes maghrebines à Tunis and by the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. The author thanks the 12 Tunisian politicians who granted lengthy interviews and wishes to acknowledge the cooperation of local officials in four Tunisian municipalities and the assistance of Peter Lifton, Cathy Wolfheim, and 10 advanced FlU psychology students who read and evaluated interview transcripts for this study.

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8 ln 1988 the PSD was renamed the Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD), but for internal consistency and historical accuracy, PSD will be used throughout this article.

9 For this task, 10 American male and female advanced psychology students were recruited, as were 1 public health specialist with several years of experience working with Tunisian women, and 1 American practicing psychologist trained in personality assessment. The latter two were specially enlisted as an internal control for validity of assessment. All judges were asked to read the interview transcripts (translated from French into English for the benefit of the 11 nonfrancophone judges) and evaluate the 12 subjects with regard to the trait of efficacy. To assist them in interpreting interview responses and to sensitize them to cultural differences, judges were provided written background materials, and the student judges were required to attend a lengthy lecture on Tunisian family and culture.

10 Andrea, Rugh, “Foreword” to Nayra, Atiya, Khul-Khaal: Five Egyptian Women Tell Their Stories (Syracuse, N.Y., 1982), pp. XIX–XX.Google Scholar

11 This description was modified from Susan, E.Waltz and Harrison, G.Gough, “External Evaluation of Efficacy by Means of an Adjective Check List Scale for Observers,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 3 (1984), 699.Google Scholar

12 The inter-observer correlation for this trait, a measure of internal validity, was. 92, as calculated by the Soearman–Brown split half method. To provide a second observer evaluation of efficacy, and thus a measure of external validation of the efficacy trait rating, the 12 judges were also asked to complete an Adjective Check List (ACL) for each subject. The ACL contains 300 words or phrases that may be used to describe oneself, other persons, or abstract states and concepts. (See Gough, and Heilbrun, , The Adjective Check List Manual–1980 Edition [Palo Alto, Calif., 1980].) From item-metric analysis of this list, Waltz and Gough, “External Evaluation,” had previously devised an observer scale for efficacy. The relationship between the efficacy trait ratings and the ACL score was very strong (r =.95; p <. 001), with all 5 subjects who rated high in efficacy by the judges receiving above sample mean scores.Google Scholar

13 Mean scores for subjects rated high ranged from 7.6 to 8.7; for subjects rated moderately high, the range was from 6.8 to 7.1.

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18 See Lester, W.Milbrath and God, M.L., Political Participation (Chicago, 1977),Google Scholar who write: “The evidence is overwhelming that feelings of efficacy are disproportionately found among those with higher objective social positions” (p. 60). For the Tunisian case, see Mark, A.Tessler and Mary, E.Keppel, “Political Generations,” in Russell, A.Stone and John, Simmons, eds., Change in Tunisia; Studies in the Social Sciences (Albany, 1976), pp. 73–106.Google Scholar

19 In a 1970 study, Klineberg noted a similar effect (Klineberg, S., “Intergenerational Change: Some Psychological Consequences of Modernization,” in Change in Tunisia, pp. 289–310). Whether or not a student remained in school was a more important correlate of efficacy than was the number of years of school completed. Success in school, rather than knowledge obtained, seems to be the crucial factor.Google Scholar

20 Further evidence of this pattern is seen in Naima, one of the two low-efficacy subjects who also shares something of this class background, although the urban setting in which she was raised was smaller and socially less sophisticated. In the company of her male colleagues and in the interview setting, Naima was demure and retiring, visibly uncomfortable. With the interview setting behind us, however, she warmed up considerably, gently asking me many questions about the study and graciously inviting me to be her family's guest should I return to the town. While it is hard to imagine this passive young woman as a leader of great initiative in any setting, it may well be that in a context more personally comfortable she would appear more engaged, more competent, and more resourceful.

21 Leila, Abu-Lughod, Veiled Sentiments (Berkeley, 1986).Google Scholar

22 Jacques, Berque, Le Maghreb entre deux guerres (Paris, 1962).Google Scholar

23 Larson, , “Status of Women in a Tunisian Village,” pp. 417–32.Google Scholar

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25 Jeanne, Parr Lemkau, “Personality and Background Characteristics of Women in Male-Dominated Occupations: A Review,” Psychology of Women Quarterly 4 (1979), 233–35.Google Scholar

26 Earl, L.Sullivan, Women in Egyptian Political Life (Syracuse, N.Y., 1986), pp. 46–52; 153–55.Google Scholar

27 Halim, Barakat, “The Arab Family and the Challenge of Social Transformation,” in Elizabeth, A. Fernea, ed., Women and the Family in the Middle East (Austin, Tex., 1985), pp. 27–48.Google Scholar

28 Hatem, , “Underdevelopment, Mothering and Gender,” 55.Google Scholar