Desrues,
T., & Nieto, M. J. (2009). The development of gender equality for Moroccan
women – illusion or reality? Journal of Gender Studies, 18(1), 25-34.
The article
under review is written by Thierry Desrues and Juana Moreno Nieto and published
in the Journal of Gender Studies by Routledge. As its title suggests, the aim
of the article is to examine whether the development of gender equality in
Morocco is an illusion or reality. In the abstract and introduction, the authors
further clarify this aim, stating that they attempt to analyze the extent to
which the situation of Moroccan women has improved and whether there is “real
change” (Desrues & Nieto, 2009, pp.
25-26).
In the abstract, the authors state their two findings. The first is that “although
real progress has been made over the last 50 years, there is still much more to
be achieved.” The second is that “there are indications that the incipient
participation by women in the public sphere too often continues to reproduce
schemes of subordination” (p. 25). Considering social change as a multidimensional
process, the authors divide their analysis into four sections, each dealing
with one broad dimension. This review keeps the same organization; a summary
and critique of each section is provided before moving to the following
section.
Socio-demographic variables of change
The first section,
entitled “Socio-demographic variables of change,” includes three subsections,
each analyzing one socio-demographic variable. First of all, it should be noted
that the authors moved directly to the analysis without providing a literature
review, given that they are speaking of findings, hence the need for a review of
previous findings. Concerning the section in question, the authors open it with
the broad, unsupported statement that “wide consensus exists regarding the
socio-demographic variables that play a key role in identifying the processes
of social change” (p. 26), to justify their choice of the three variables they
are about to analyze. These socio-demographic variables are “access to
education, the postponement of marriage and declining average number of
children per women, as well as the effects that these phenomena have on the
concept of family” given that they are “some of the most relevant factors for
understanding the situation of women” (p. 26).
In the
subsection entitled “Education: the driving force behind change,” the authors
use statistics from official reports and other references about “schooling and
diminishing drop-out rates” in K-12 and higher education and compare the
percentages of the two sexes in the post-independence as well as contemporary
Morocco (pp. 26-27). Concerning contemporary Morocco, the statistics cited by
the authors show that there is a very insignificant discrepancy between the
sexes in terms of access to education, especially in urban areas (pp. 26-27). The
authors conclude, “the progress made since independence in terms of education
is real, but continues to be insufficient, especially with regard to women in
rural areas” (p. 27). It should be noted that this subsection has few
weaknesses. For instance, contrary to the authors’ idea that education “constitutes
a true break with the past” (p. 26), K-12 and higher education in Morocco, being
unsecular, is arguably used for patriarchal indoctrination. In other words,
Moroccan girls have equal access to education, but they are not educated to
believe in total gender equality. Another weakness is that the authors consider the
variables of access to jobs and political participation as merely derivatives
of the variable of education. Instead of treating them as separate variables,
given their importance, they very briefly analyze them at the end of the
subsection on education.
In the
second subsection, entitled “Changes in family size and composition,” the
authors use family size and composition as the second socio-demographic
variable for evaluating the development of gender equality in Morocco. Using
statistical evidence, the authors affirm that there is a shift “from large to
small families” and “from multigenerational to nuclear households” as well as a
decrease in the number of children per woman, concluding that such shifts
indicate “the growing power of women as wives” (p. 28). However, since the aim of
the article is to evaluate gender equality in Morocco, it should be noted that while
changes in family size and composition may be a sign of the improvement of
Moroccan women’s situation, as the authors state, these changes are not
necessarily a sign of the rise of equality-based families. Nuclear families are
rising, but there remains the question of whether these families are based on
the principle of complementarity or equality, a question a quantitative
approach may not adequately answer.
In the third
subsection, entitled “The postponement of marriage,” the authors use the
postponement of marriage as a socio-demographic variable for evaluating the
development of gender equality in Morocco. Using statistical evidence for the
growing tendency among Moroccan young people to postpone marriage, the authors
develop the idea that such tendency indicates that the institution of marriage
in Morocco is being questioned. Yet, the postponement of marriage does not mean
“[the] norm is being questioned” (p. 28), nor is it a sign of the development
of gender equality. Rather, arguably, the phenomenon is largely a result of
socio-economic factors, mainly education and unemployment, the latter of which is considered by the authors as merely part
of “other factors” (p. 29). The authors end the subsection with a statistics-based
claim without evidence in terms of citation or primary research, only to
conclude that “women continue the social trend of marrying older men. If this
is the case, it would suggest that hegemonic structures are still being
reproduced on some level, where the husband’s authority is grounded in age
rather than as solely a product of his gender” (p. 29). Contrary to this
statement, what gives Moroccan males their authority in marriage is not their
old age but the very status of being an adult male.
Feminist mobilization
Having
analyzed the three socio-demographic variables, the authors move on to the second
section entitled “Feminist mobilization.” In this section, they provide a brief
review of feminist mobilization in post-independence and contemporary Morocco. The
section opens with the idea that the limited access to education by women since
independence paved the way for the emergence of educated female elite, some of
whom became feminist activists organized under associations like the Democratic
Association of Moroccan Women (ADFM) and the Women’s Action Union (UAF) (p. 29).
After that, the authors discuss the role of current women’s associations in
continuing the feminist battle and their interactions with international
feminist and human rights organizations (p. 29). The section closes with a
discussion of the achievements of Moroccan feminist associations, some of which
are that they managed to make women’s right a public issue rather than a taboo
and that their mobilization was appropriated by the king who reserved 30 seats
for women from a national list for the elections to the Chamber of
Representatives in 2002 and launched the drafting of the new family code in
2003 (pp. 29-30).
The new Family Code
In the
third section, entitled “The new Family Code,” the authors discuss the
strengths and limitations of Morocco’s latest family code (2004). They cited one
list of the achievements and another of the limitations of the family code (pp.
30-31). The authors affirm that the positive changes brought by the family code
are many, at least in theory, but the code has serious limitations (p. 31). The
limitations concern legal guardianship of children, repudiation, separation by
compensation, inheritance, polygamy, and toleration of certain cases of
underage marriage (p. 31). The section closes with a discussion of the difficulties
of application of the new code and resistance from conservatists (p. 31).
Opinions about women’s place in society
The fourth
and last section, entitled “Opinions about women’s place in society,” is
motivated by the idea that “the extent to which the situation of women in
Morocco has changed needs further interrogation,” and that “a subjective
dimension should be considered” (p. 31). To this end, the authors use data from
the World Values Survey (2001) with the aim of taking into account Moroccans’
opinion about women’s place in society. After summarizing the statistical
data, the authors conclude that “although the incorporation of women in the
public sphere does not meet with complete rejection, women remain perceived as
subordinate to men and their incorporation is in turn conditioned by this
subordination” (p. 32).
In the conclusion, the authors
provide a summary of their analysis, but it is a summary that highlights some
conclusions while overlooks some major ones reached in the analysis, such as
the ones on political participation and postponement of marriage (p. 32). The
summary is headed by the statement: “In spite of the progress made since
independence, the situation of women in Morocco is far from egalitarian” (p.
32). The authors end the article with recommendations for studying “the newly
articulated situation” of Moroccan women “in a context such as Morocco that is
replete with uncertainties” (p. 32).
To summarize this review,
it can be said that the article is based on the truism that “although real
progress has been made over the last 50 years, there is still much more to be
achieved” (p. 25), which is true for most Muslim-majority and other third world
countries. Truisms are of course worthy of study, but this article provides a
very modest analysis of this truism, which may be ascribed to its heavy use of
statistics as well as the weaknesses discussed throughout this review and
summarized here. The authors speak of findings, but they did not provide a
literature review of previous findings on gender equality in Morocco. Besides,
they failed to justify their choice of the selected socio-demographic variables.
Added to these are the several weaknesses in the subsections on education,
family size and composition, and postponement of marriage.
