The sociocultural contributions of women and their effectiveness in Algerian society

الإسهامات السوسيو- ثقافية للمرأة وفاعليتها في المجتمع الجزائري

Les apports socioculturels des femmes et leur efficacité dans la société algérienne

Manser Souad

p. 559-574

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Manser Souad, « The sociocultural contributions of women and their effectiveness in Algerian society », Aleph, 10 (1) | 2023, 559-574.

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Manser Souad, « The sociocultural contributions of women and their effectiveness in Algerian society », Aleph [En ligne], 10 (1) | 2023, mis en ligne le 31 janvier 2023, consulté le 04 octobre 2024. URL : https://aleph.edinum.org/7898

There is no doubt that the increasing presence of Algerian women in public life is one of the pillars of Algeria’s social and cultural change since independence. Algerian women’s participation in the path of change is a reflection of their role, effectiveness, and contributions in a variety of fields. Whether it’s school, family, work, or cultural activities. The positive and negative changes in the status of Algerian women within a vision that adopts the broad concept of culture, which expresses the sum of the spiritual, material, intellectual, and emotional features that characterize societies, including arts and literature, human rights, value systems, traditions and beliefs, Women’s role in constructing society is to raise and create children. Children are society’s educational foundation. Beginning with the prenatal stage, women begin to care for the nutrition and health of the foetus, and after childbirth, they raise and raise children, instilling moral values and correct behaviours in them, because women build the family, and the family builds society.

Il ne fait aucun doute que la présence croissante des femmes algériennes dans la vie publique est l’un des piliers du changement social et culturel que l’Algérie a connu depuis l’indépendance. L’accompagnement des femmes algériennes sur la voie du changement est le reflet de leur rôle, de leur efficacité et de leurs contributions dans divers domaines, qu’il s’agisse de l’école, de la famille, du travail ou de la vie culturelle. Les changements intervenus dans le statut de la femme algérienne, positivement et négativement, dans une vision qui adopte le concept large de culture, qui exprime la somme des traits spirituels, matériels, intellectuels et émotionnels qui caractérisent les sociétés, parmi lesquelles : les arts et la littérature, les droits de l’homme, les systèmes de valeurs, les traditions et les croyances, et le rôle des femmes est Dans la construction de la société en élevant et en créant des enfants, les enfants sont la pierre angulaire de l’éducation de la société, à partir de la phase prénatale, la femme commence à prendre soin de la nutrition et de la santé du fœtus, et après la naissance, elle élève et élève des enfants, tout en leur inculquant des valeurs morales et des comportements corrects, comme la femme construit la famille et la famille construit la société.

ليس ثمة شك في أن الوجود المتزايد للمرأة الجزائرية في الحياة العامة يمثل أحد ركائز التغيير الاجتماعي والثقافي الذي تعيشه الجزائر منذ الإستقلال. وتمثل مواكبة المرأة الجزائرية لمسار التغيير الحاصل انعكاسا لدورها وفعاليتها وإسهاماتها في مختلف الميادين ، سواء تعلق الأمر بالمدرسة أو الأسرة أو العمل أو الحياة الثقافية. إن التغيرات التي لحقت بوضع المرأة الجزائرية إيجابا وسلبا ضمن رؤية تتبنى مفهوم الثقافة الواسع، الذي يعبر عن مجموع السمات الروحية، والمادية، والفكرية، والعاطفية، التي تميز المجتمعات، والتي تشمل : الفنون والآداب، وحقوق الإنسان، ونظم القيم والتقاليد والمعتقدات، ويتمثل دور المرأة في بناء المجتمع في تربية الأبناء وإنشاؤهم، فالأطفال هم حجر الأساس التربوي للمجتمع ، فبدءًا من مرحلة ما قبل الولادة، تبدأ المرأة بالاهتمام بتغذية الجنين وصحته، وبعد الولادة تقوم بتربية الأطفال وتنشئتهم ، كما تزرع فيهم القيم الأخلاقية والسلوكيات الصحيحة، فالمرأة تبني الأسرة، والأسرة تبني المجتمع.

Introduction

Because women are the first nucleus for the establishment of strong and cohesive societies, through their role in raising children and guiding and assisting the husband in his work, the family is the most important educational institution. The woman is the pillar of the home; if she is aware of her role, society’s foundation is solid; if she is superficial and perverted, society’s foundation is dilapidated and will collapse quickly, taking the children with it.

There is no doubt that the increasing presence of Algerian women in public life is one of the pillars of Algeria’s social and economic change since its independence sixty years ago. Keeping up with Algerian women on the road to change reflects their role and effectiveness in a variety of fields. Women’s performance and influence in the process of change, as well as their influence on it, are measured by the role entrusted to public policies and the level of their performance and effectiveness, whether in school, family, work, or political life. (Hassan, 1978: 31)

From the start of the International Decade for Women in 1985 to the Beijing Conference in 1996, there has been a worldwide interest in the issue of women’s development and enabling them to perform their roles effectively like men and participate in decision-making in various aspects of political, economic, social, and cultural life. This global interest has coincided with the interests of numerous countries, international and regional organizations, and bodies. Through holding a series of seminars, discussions, workshops, and conferences, such as the Arab Women’s Summit Forum in Manama in April 2000 and the Extraordinary Summit for Arab Women in Morocco in November 2001, in addition to several forums on women and politics, women and society, women and the media, women and the economy, and women in the diasporas, which were held in several Arab countries. (Burghada, 2012: 2)

Women’s full and equitable participation in public life is critical to the development of strong and vibrant democracies. As a result, active participation and leadership roles for women at the national and local levels have become a focus of global development policies. Some may wonder, however, what the significance of women becoming social and cultural actors who contribute to national development alongside men is.

1. Women’s participation in public life as reflected in social and cultural representations:

Keeping up with change and the Algerian governments’ attitude and policies toward women in particular, that is, toward the social, political, and economic ties that women’s participation reflects and toward social ties between the sexes in particular, especially with regard to the issue of equality, were the two main pillars of the presence of women during the fifty years that followed independence.

It is important to first note that studies and research into the status of women in Algeria have long been primarily focused on their legal standing. Family law has masked the issue of its rights and status in the family and society on the one hand, and in public affairs on the other, for a period of twenty years. So, the majority of studies concentrated on the legal side. Second, a lot of research has been done on the social aspect and it has been used to characterize the various social and economic events and changes Algeria has gone through, which are directly related to the political system’s ideological choices. The growing interest in gender studies is the last point (which pays attention to the cultural aspect in studying the characteristics and social ties between the sexes) in the world, particularly in the academic setting, has had a significant impact on keeping up with a number of Algerian researchers working on this topic. (Khodja, 2002: 166)

The significant shift that occurred in women’s affairs after independence seemed to reflect the political system’s movement toward change, but it only applied to a small number of areas, such as the traditional aspects of family and social life. The Khemisti Law, which was approved by the Constituent Assembly on June 29, 1963, was one of the key steps in elevating women’s status and promoting their participation in public life as well as providing them with access to education. The government focused on girls’ education after the aforementioned law stated that a girl could not marry before the age of 16. In 2008, 92 percent of the population was educated, up from 37 percent in 1966. The labor force increased by more than three times in less than forty years as a result of this extraordinary rise (5.2 percent in 1977 to 17.7 percent in 2011). (Khodja, 2012: 167-168)

Despite the increase, this percentage is still low when compared to its neighbors, where it is as high as 26% in Morocco and 25% in Tunisia. However, the education sector shows the most significant changes that took place, which can be described as a quantitative development regarding the participation of Algerian women. Between 1966 and 2008, the proportion of girls aged 6 to 15 who attended school increased from 36.90 percent to 92 percent. The percentage of female students in higher education increased to 59 percent in the graduating department, compared to 38 percent among male students, even though the number of Algerian female students in 1963 did not exceed 420 out of a total of 2750 students, or only 15 percent. However, this percentage drops to 48 percent in the post-graduation section, while the proportion of men rises to 52 percent. The difference in the percentage of female students in the two departments (graduation and post-graduation) indicates that university graduates have a stronger preference for work or family life. However, if we consider how underrepresented women are in professional life, we can also draw the conclusion that the proportion of women with university degrees accounts for a sizable portion of the unemployed. In terms of two significant factors, the rate of schooling and education on the one hand, and participation in professional life on the other, this contradiction reflects a portion of the “unbalanced” social changes. Therefore, despite what is frequently indicated in the statistics provided, quantitative development does not only represent a positive and significant aspect when considering the status of Algerian women today. This contradiction needs to be considered, especially on the yearly occasion of International Women’s Day. It is one of the main causes of gender inequality in and of itself. The issue of the decreasing opportunities available to Algerian women in this regard is also brought up by their work. Women’s professional activity is primarily focused in the administrative fields of education and health, where their presence is at 63.70 percent on an annual basis. There are also significantly fewer women employed in trade, transportation, and agriculture. This disparity also reveals how heavily weighted toward working women the professional category is, confirming the lack of an effective strategy for integrating women with both university degrees and certificates of vocational training. There have been some paradoxes about how differently men and women work, but one that stands out is that a majority of working women—53 percent—are single, compared to just 29 percent of working men. This observation reflects part of the dynamic that characterizes unmarried women’s activity while also demonstrating that marriage plays an influential role in women’s professional activity, as married women’s activity drops to 39% while married men’s activity rises to nearly 60%. This case is not only specific to Algerian society, but it is frequently linked to all relations related to conflict and integration between the family and the family when the woman is the actor, an area that requires more research into the circumstances that determine the positive and negative effects on each woman in relation to her work and family. (Burghada, 2012: 44-59)

Raising such a problem about women and social and cultural change in Algeria prompts us to consider the role of social ties and family relationships in determining the extent to which women are integrated into social and cultural life and the effectiveness of their participation. According to a study conducted by a team of researchers from the National Center for Research in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Algerian women are adapting to the various changes occurring in society and at various economic, social, and family levels. However, Algerian women face a number of challenges. According to the same study, many difficulties affect their lives and cause them anxiety, and the most significant of these difficulties can be limited to the professional environment, such as transportation, harassment, pay and promotion inequality, and a lack of nurseries, in addition to those problems related to the family environment, because many women are subjected to various forms of ill-treatment and spousal violence. (Khodja, 2012: 68)

Since the first World Conference on Women in Mexico in 1975, the second in Copenhagen in 1980, and the third in Nairobi in 1985 (Alsuwid, 1990: 13), there has been a significant increase in global interest in the issue of women and the importance of their participation and inclusion in processes of equality, development, and peace. This was also evident in the outcomes of the Fourth International Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1996, where the outcomes and recommendations emphasized some of the terms or approaches that carry important development concepts, such as the approach to empowering women, which aims to improve women’s image of themselves, confidence in their own abilities, and value in the home and community.

Despite international conferences advocating for women’s rights, we see an intangible presence of women in various areas of life due to customs, traditions, and the dominant intellectual and cultural heritage. Add to this the high rate of illiteracy and women’s lack of awareness of their role and rights, as well as the heavy burdens that fall on women both inside and outside the home. She emphasized the right of women to actively participate in dialogue and discussion and analysis of the social, economic, political, and cultural conditions affecting their abilities and status. In addition to her right to participate in decision-making for herself and her family, and her right to education and training, she emphasized the right of women to become active factors in society with the aim of achieving justice and equality in its comprehensive concept and at all levels.

2. The importance of women’s roles

Women have been distinguished throughout the ages by their participation in many fields, as they played many roles, whether as a writer, poet, artist, or other professions in all fields, in addition to being a great mother who can assume responsibility for her home in an excellent manner.

Women have a role and influence in education, so they are considered the first circle of social upbringing, and they are the ones who instill in the child the standards through which he controls what he receives later in society from other institutions. When he goes to school, he evaluates what he hears and sees from the situations he encounters in life through what his mother instilled in him in particular; he chooses his classmates based on what he grew up with within his family; and he evaluates what he hears and sees from the situations he encounters in life through what his mother instilled in him. Herein lies its role, significance, and danger in the field of education. Also, do not overlook the importance of the mother’s role in the early childhood stage, as it is critical for the child’s upbringing, and the mother’s role is greater than others. And the problem isn’t just a medical or health issue; it also has psychological consequences, the most important of which is that the child feels the tenderness and closeness that he requires. As a result, doctors advise mothers to be eager to breastfeed their children, as well as to care for and approach them even if they do not breastfeed. What this means is that at this stage, the mother deals with her child more than the father does, and at this stage, he will develop many habits and behaviors that will be difficult to change in the future. The danger of the mother’s role is that she is the gateway to the child’s later dangerous stage of life. (Ali, 1996: 75)

2.1.Women’s contribution to cultural advancement

According to Dr. Nadia Jamal El-Din, a role is a collection of characteristics and expectations that are socially defined as belonging to a specific position. The role has social significance because it demonstrates how people’s actions are governed by society and how they behave in particular ways. The woman in her family holds a particular social position, and she is expected to act in a certain way according to the role that is expected of her. (Sheloufi, 2009: 23)

Women’s cultural roles are represented by their ability to evaluate the knowledge and information they receive from various media in a way that supports their role in dealing with contemporary issues and remaining open to the outside world. Education is important in this field because the more educated a woman is, the more she understands, is conscious of, and is resistant to negative suggestions that may be transmitted through contact with the outside world. In terms of the woman, her normative role as a woman, wife, and mother, that is, the role she is expected to play, is very similar, if not identical, to her actual role.

The interest in the role and culture of women in society stems from its members’ belief in the environment in which the child lives during his first years of life and in his future development. Women are crucial in the development of small human resources. The primary educational institution for raising and educating children is the family. The educational foundation stone is laid in it, where the child is a pliable dough that accepts and adapts to guidance, picking up images, customs, traditions, and culture from his surroundings. They also learn the fundamentals of social life, knowledge, and healthy habits. (Burghada, 2012: 60)

A woman’s care for her children begins before they are born, with her selection of proper integrated nutrition that benefits her health during pregnancy and lactation, in order to protect them. so that they are not subjected to growth retardation, a lack of vitality, a lack of immunity, and an increased susceptibility to infectious diseases at this stage in order to live healthy and strong lives.

Women foster their children’s energy by engaging them in sports while also developing their intellectual and cultural awareness. They educate them morally and politically so that they do not succumb to waves of extremism, and they instill in them the necessary Islamic values, behavior, and customs. This development and education is based on the principle that all of the care, care, and development that a child receives in his early years of life constitutes the maximum level at which he will be when he reaches maturity. In addition to her work outside the home, the role of women extends to the work that she performs in the home economy of arranging and cleaning the house, making food, and distributing the family’s income on household expenditures, and in some cases, bears full responsibility in the event of the husband’s absence or death. (Burghada, 2012: 69)

The extent of women’s cultural contributions is determined by the extent of community services that assist them in performing these roles. They can be found in social service facilities such as social units, nurseries, training and vocational training centers, and family guidance and counseling offices. General hospitals, maternity hospitals, children’s and maternity care centers, dispensaries, family planning centers, cultural service facilities from the media, libraries, and sports and social clubs are all examples of health service centers. (Hassan, 1978: 23)

If society wants to benefit from women’s full contribution to development, it must assist them in fulfilling their role by planning and implementing procedures that enable them to assume their responsibilities. This preparation includes having sufficient knowledge of health, cultural, and environmental issues. This preparation also includes developing their skills to apply this information in all aspects of life; strengthening their attitudes and belief in the significance of their role in the development of their society; and developing their cultural awareness to learn about what is going on around them in the local and external worlds, as well as knowing their rights and duties. Women are provided with educational and cultural opportunities.

2.2. Women’s social role

The family is the bedrock of any society and governs social ties. An individual’s personality is largely shaped by his upbringing. If his upbringing is sound and the environment in which he is raised is healthy and free of problems, he emerges as a natural individual who enjoys social life, whereas in an environment that lacks sober education, its members frequently suffer from communication problems, putting women in front of the inevitability of taking responsibility for the role that contributes to society’s building. (Alsuwid, 1990: 31)

Some women have been denied the right to an education in the past because society believes that they do not need an educational certificate and that learning to read and write is sufficient, or that learning them entitles them to a role that they are not entitled to. They believe that a man has the right to be educated, educated, and successful in his practical life if he raises children and stays up at night trying to teach them. Who suffers and toils to instill in them values, principles, and morals? We do not dismiss or underestimate the role of the uneducated woman because God Almighty has implanted in her the love, tenderness, and fear for her children that she needs to properly care for them. She is concerned that no harm will come to them, and she is working hard to secure for them the necessities of life in a way that ensures a promising and bright future for them, whether in social or educational terms. Every mother wishes for her children to have a better life than she did and to reach higher levels than she did. (Sheloufi, 2009: 25)

Whether a woman is educated or not, she is the foundation of this society, and it is our responsibility to care for her and not undervalue her worth. Society would have been corrupted without her, and the great group of thinkers, creators, and leaders would not have emerged. She is the one who is concerned with their advancement and providing them with comfort and opportunities.

Following independence, the Algerian political system pursued a development strategy aimed at demolishing old social and economic structures and establishing modern structures that those in charge of this strategy deemed more rational and rational. As a result, the state sought to promote women, improve their status, and remove any barriers that prevented them from rising to the ranks they deserved in a variety of fields. This is based on the fact that women’s status is one of the indicators of development in any society, so talking about a modern or modern society is impossible unless women enjoy their social, political, cultural, and economic status, as well as their human status (Khodja, 2012: 175).

A modernizing society is one that places a high value on the status of women in order to integrate them into the development process through education, the provision of social services, and support for their participation in society at all levels.

As a result, women’s work has advanced significantly, which is a natural reflection of their educational attainment. The presence of women has grown in various aspects of public and economic activity, as well as in assuming responsibilities and occupying positions of power and decision-making, as evidenced by the following statistical data and indicators:

  • Public employment: 160,607 women were employed in the public sector, accounting for 31.8 percent of the total.

  • Education: along with the health and judiciary sectors, is one of the most popular fields for Algerian women, with female teachers accounting for 53 percent of the total teaching staff. Furthermore, girls account for 49.27 percent of all school enrollments (in the primary, intermediate, and secondary levels). Approximately 62 percent of women work in educational supervision.

  • Health sector: female supervision accounts for 65 percent of all health-care workers. In the field of specialized medicine, women make up 54% of total employees, while pharmacists make up 73%.

  • The judicial system: In 2004, there were 957 women judges out of a total of 2,897 judges. Currently, there are 2,064 female judges, accounting for 41.41 percent of all judges. In terms of positions of power, women have held the positions of President of the State Council and President of a judicial council, as well as 29 positions as Chief Justice. Women also entered fields previously reserved for men only. According to 1999 statistics, the number of women in judicial record positions reached 84, or 9 percent; in governor positions, which were auctioned; and in official translator positions, 82 women, or 54 percent. (Sheloufi, 20029 : 46-48).

  • The military domain: A large number of women have entered the military, particularly in military health, administration, and the national gendarmerie. She held high military ranks, the highest of which was general, a first in the history of independent Algeria.

  • National security: The number of women working in national security has increased. After a long period of women’s unemployment, which began in the early 1970s, the field was reopened to them. In 2011, the number of policewomen reached 9,700 through annual recruitment of various ranks, including 7,300 public security agents and 369 public security portfolios. While there are 1086 female police inspectors, 634 female officers, 129 police districts, and 22 police chiefs, and 5 women at the rank of first police brigadier general.

  • Political domain: Algerian women have made significant political gains, with their participation in local and legislative elected councils now legally mandated. Since President Bouteflika’s election, the most fundamental changes have been made to the laws governing the family, women, and children. The principle of encouraging women’s political participation was approved in a constitutional amendment in 2008. According to this principle, the electoral law was amended to allow for 30 percent proportional representation of women in elected councils. This enabled a large number of women to gain parliamentary seats, with women occupying 145 of the 462 seats in parliament, or 31.6 percent, a significant increase from the previous parliament’s 7 percent. Algeria thus became the Arab country with the highest proportion of women in parliament. Prior to Tunisia, which ranks 34th in the world with 26.7 percent, Iraq was 38th with 25.2 percent, Sudan was 41st with 24.6 percent, and Mauritania was 55th with 22.1 percent. The new classification also allowed Algeria to rank higher than a number of Western countries, including France, which ranks 69th.

  • Economic field: According to statistical indicators, working women contributed 1,904,000 to economic activity, or 17.6 percent of the total number of employed women estimated at 10,788,000. This figure was estimated to be 5% in 1977 and 8.1 percent in 1987. (Burghada, 2012 : 63-68)

As a result of the foregoing, we can conclude that the Algerian woman successfully penetrated various aspects of social activity, increasing her participation in public life as well as in centers of power and decision-making. This reflects the advancement of her social standing and a significant improvement in her social standing. We conclude, based on the changes observed in the world of women in the fields of education and work, as well as the legal system, that the state’s modernizing act was successful in achieving relative equality between men and women in Algerian society outside the home. Because of the democratization and obligation of education, labor laws, elections, and nationality, as well as inside the home because of personal status laws, all of this has repercussions on the change of values in terms of equality.

3. The evolution of women’s social and cultural conditions in developing countries

  • Since the International Decade for Women (1975-1985), governments have begun to pay attention to and work to improve the situation of women in all fields, allowing women to participate effectively in all aspects of life. Most Islamic countries have spent the last few decades expanding social services and infrastructure, enhancing social cohesion and making further progress in all aspects of social welfare. (Alsuwid, 1990 : 84)

Most of these countries’ central governments have made significant efforts to increase access for all children to basic education services while also expanding opportunities for all children to obtain them free of charge, and they have worked to raise the level of girls’ education because these societies believe that girls’ education is the single most effective investment. Whether women work outside the home or not, it benefits family members by improving their health and nutritional conditions, lowering child mortality and morbidity rates. This is confirmed by the Human Development Report for the year 2000, which focuses on health, nutrition, and education not only for their value, but also for their direct and indirect positive effects on human capital, productivity, and ability. On social interaction and participation. Consider the consequences of education. Domestic violence is unaffected by the number of years of marriage, the age of the woman, living arrangements, or the education of the husband. It is rather influenced by a woman’s education. It has been discovered in India that if a woman completes secondary school, the incidence of such violence decreases by more than two-thirds.

  • The developing countries, the majority of which are from the Islamic world, have made significant advances in food, health, and education. Between 1980 and 1999, the percentage of malnourished and underweight children fell from 37% to 27%. During the same time period, the child mortality rate fell by more than half, from 168 cases per thousand births to 93 cases. From 1970 to 1999, the proportion of people in developing countries with access to safe drinking water more than quadrupled, rising from 13% to 71%. Egypt was concerned about the health of women and adopted the concept of reproductive health. This was based on the recommendations of the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994, which stated that gender equality and women’s reproductive health rights are critical to human development. (Sheloufi, 2009 : 50-59)

  • The concept of reproductive health refers to the provision of services to women between pregnancy and childbirth, with a focus on women’s psychological and social health. As a result, women in Egypt became the target of a variety of health, psychological, and social assistance and services at various stages of their lives, including pregnancy and childbirth and everything in between. This situation was mirrored in Tunisia, which is one of the North African countries most interested in women’s advancement. Iran responded to the issues of the time by agreeing to implement extensive birth control programmers in order to build a modern state. Beginning in 1994, it required all those planning to marry of both sexes to attend family planning lectures and lessons prior to marriage, issued a fatwa allowing family planning and sterilization of women and men to reduce offspring, and restricted girls’ early marriage. (Fathi, 2020)

In terms of educational services, illiteracy in developing countries has decreased by about half as adult literacy has increased by half, from 48% in 1970 to 72% in 1998, and the net enrollment ratio in both primary and secondary levels has increased from 50% in 1970 to 72% in 1998.

In Egypt, the net enrollment ratio for the first grade of primary school increased from 75.12 percent in 1992/1993 to 86.81 percent in 1998/1999, while the enrollment rate for females was 45.7 percent in 1992/1993 and rose to 48 percent in 1998/1999, indicating a decrease in female enrollments during the period. According to the 1996 census, the percentage of female representation in Egyptian society in the first grade is close to 49 percent. This is an important indicator of achieving equal educational opportunities and that the gender issue in education is about to be resolved. Illiteracy among adult females fell from 61.8 percent in 1986 to 43.4 percent in 1999.

In 1998, Iran was one of the ten countries in the world that had eliminated the dangerous gender gap in education, with 95 percent of girls finding places in primary and middle schools, and the proportion of university students reaching around 40 percent of the volume of students in higher education, with only 30 percent of colleges being for girls only. (Fathi, 2020)

One study on family planning and women’s power in urban societies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia found that women in Arab societies have informal power and have strong influence over the marriage decisions of their close relatives. Women’s unofficial power in the families under study was bolstered by their frequent travel abroad, long stays away from home, and their children’s education in foreign schools. Kuwait, on the other hand, is the Gulf country with the highest level of freedom and social status for women.

Women in the North African region (Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco) have gained a measure of power within the family framework as a result of women entering the field of work outside the home and gaining economic independence, resulting in a change in women’s social and cultural conditions. (Sheloufi, 2009: 65)

4. The barriers to Algerian women’s actual participation in the development process

Algerian women have joined men in advancing economic, social, and cultural development through their participation in various workplaces, production, creativity, and service, as well as decision-making circles. It does, however, face difficult challenges that must be overcome in order to play the expected role in the development process. These difficulties are depicted in :

  1. When we examine the working conditions of women in Algeria, we see that there is a lot of realistic evidence that confirms the existence of a tendency to priorities the human rights dimension over the commitment dimension. In many cases, women are demanding greater rights. At the same time, it tries to avoid performing duties and obligations under the guise of its social type, which contradicts the call for equality in rights and duties between men and women, and the most prominent of these evidences are:

  • Many pharmacists refused to work the night shift, citing the fact that more than 80% of the sector’s employees are female, a problem that the National Syndicate of Private Pharmacists presented to the trustee ministry in order to postpone the night shift and limit it to holidays and holidays. According to this, the labor law does not require women to work night shifts, and this breach of duty jeopardizes the interests of patients, as there are major health problems that arise in cases of extreme necessity.

  • Many pharmacists refused to work the night shift, citing the fact that more than 80% of the sector’s employees are female, a problem that the National Syndicate of Private Pharmacists presented to the trustee ministry in order to postpone the night shift and limit it to holidays and holidays. According to this, the labor law does not require women to work night shifts, and this breach of duty jeopardizes the interests of patients, as there are major health problems that arise in cases of extreme necessity.

  • Imbalance in health coverage in many southern states, as well as a large deficit in many specialties, as a result of the emergence of the civil service and work problem in the southern states, as a result of a large number of female medical professionals’ refusal to move to the interior and southern states to work within the framework of the civil service. This has become an issue in recent years, especially given that women make up more than 80% of health-care providers.

  • According to several studies, the category of female workers in many institutions does not want to pursue training and participate in seminars and forums held in locations far from their place of residence due to family obligations and family reasons. This has a negative impact on many of them’s level of qualification and efficiency, given that the ultimate goal of training is to improve an individual’s abilities and skills, allowing them to control more work.

  • According to the Arab Human Development Report 2002, one of the most important causes of development problems in Arab countries that require all of their human energy is a lack of women’s empowerment. The reality reflects that the status of working Arab women is still far from ideal for utilizing Arab human capital, which is a prerequisite for launching comprehensive development.

  • Women working in many sectors, particularly statutory bodies, have a tendency to benefit more from professional privileges and to avoid as much as possible the constraints and professional obligations imposed by the profession, such as transfers outside the state of residence, night work, and participation in dangerous tasks, upsetting the balance between rights and duties and enshrining equality with men, except in terms of rights.

  1. Exaggeration and improvisation in the trend toward empowering women in response to pressures exerted by the women’s movement demanding that the status of women be improved can have disastrous consequences and generate discomfort and aggression among men. The existence of an objective basis for this may result in a decline in the values of work, performance, effectiveness, efficiency, excellence, and so on, which are essential value elements for a society based on the rational exploitation of its human resources.

Excessive equality between men and women, as well as the rush to promote women’s rights under the pressure of feminist movements, may result in the emergence of new forms of relationships that destroy very important values and social structures like the family (Sheloufi, 2009: 82-86), such as the law criminalizing violence against women, which some see as contrary to Islamic law and Algerian society’s values.

Conclusion

Women have emerged and played numerous roles in our time. They have emerged as national leaders, female doctors, and female educators. They took on roles in fields such as handicrafts, which were previously thought to be the domain of men, but they excelled in every role they played and will be even more creative if society believes in them and provides them with opportunities that men are entitled to. In searching for herself and practicing the profession that suits her, she has the same right as a man. Women are an important partner in achieving development goals and societal development. We cannot make real progress unless we include women in all aspects of politics, economics, culture, and society. Women constitute half of Algeria’s population, which is one of the most important reasons that their participation in society has become an effective urgent matter, given that this society is unable to achieve a qualitative leap in the field of development because half of it is paralysed. It can also be stated that the integration of women in all aspects of the state’s social, economic, and political life, as well as the promotion of their role, are linked to their actual empowerment in development in a way that does not contradict society’s privacy and value system, and this is based on the roles of men and women that differ from culture to culture.

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Hassan Muhammad Bayoumi, Ali. (1978). Psychological Attitudes of Saudi Youth towards Women’s Work in Society, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah.

Alsuwid, Mohamed. (1990). Introduction to the Study of Algerian Society. Alger: Diwan of University Publications.

Ali, Manea. (1996). Juvenile Delinquency and Social Change in Contemporary. Alger: Diwan of University Publications

Burghada, Waheeda. (2012),. The Political Participation of Arab Women: The Case of Algeria, The Arab Journal of Political Science, Algeria, No. 36.

Sheloufi, Farida. (2009). Women Entrepreneurs in Algeria, Unpublished Master’s Thesis, University of Constantine, Algeria.

Fathi, Belhaj: Women are a Bet on Arab Modernity, Damascus Center for Theoretical Studies and Civil Rights, on the website: http: //www.mokarabat.com/s6656.htmon: 06-02-2022.

Manser Souad

Ahmed Ben Ahmed - University Oran2

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