The Status of Aging Women in the Middle East: the Process of Change in the Life Cycle of Rural Lebanese Women
Abstract
Is there a reversal of the typical sex roles of women and men in
later life? This question provided the focus for an anthropological
investigation of 1) the differences in the psychological aging of Middle
Eastern women and men in general, and 2) a possible transition over the
life cycle in the relative status and power of Lebanese women and men in
particular. Anecdote and allusion in the anthropological literature pertaining
to many disparate cultures--including the Middle East--have
suggested that with age, women become increasingly dominant and aggressive
(i.e., stereotypically masculine), while men become increasingly passive
and submissive (i.e., stereotypically feminine). Given that the features
commonly attributed to Middle Eastern society include an intense concern
for female modesty and institutionalized inferiority and subjugation of
women to men, one would anticipate that Middle Eastern women (at least
young women) would experience a very limited degree of power and autonomy.
Therefore, the researcher expected that such a normatively patriarchal
society like Lebanon would provide a most dramatic test case for this
possible alteration in female status and increment in power, particularly
if such a transition were, in fact, accompanied by a decline in the
reputed hegemony of men in this society.
Although this study was guided by a developmental psychological
approach to human aging, it was necessarily synchronic in nature. To
compensate for this, the researcher examined the life stages of females
(from infants to the very old) in a contemporary Sunni Muslim community
in Southern Lebanon. The methods of participant observation, the interview,
an "Arabized" Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), and (Cantril's)
Self-Anchoring Striving Scale (to assess life satisfaction) were employed
to attain the following research goals: 1) to investigate the reputedly
low status and degree of power of the younger women of this Lebanese
community; 2) to establish whether in this society women become increasingly
powerful and dominant with age; 3) to articulate the process of this
transition in female status over the life cycle with regard to (a) changes
in the ~ of female dominance-expression, and (b) the timing of these
changes; 4)to investigate the effects of such a transition in female
power on the degree and expression of male dominance and power in this
society; and 5) to assess the life satisfaction of women and men, particularly
in relation to the changing social status and degree of power
experienced by each sex from early adulthood to old age.
The general conclusions reached by this study are: 1) a rural
Lebanese woman is indeed powerful and dominant vis-a-vis men throughout
her life, but increasingly so with age. Moreover, the style of feminine
dominance in this society changes over the life-span. Specifically, there
is a transition from a feminine influence that is implicit, covert, and
marked by subterfuge, to one that is increasingly overt, and recognized at
least by those in an older woman's immediate life space. Essentially this
transition approaches a change from de facto to de jure hegemony; that is,
feminine power in post-menopausal women acquires an aspect of authority;
2) the power enjoyed by men in this society is de jure; they have authority
over women. However, due to certain psycho-socioeconomic components
(delineated in the thesis), this masculine power is quite tenuous; as men
age, the tenuous, fragile nature of the foundations of their authority is
increasingly exposed and eroded. Consequently, the hegemony of rural
Lebanese men appears to decline with age; and 3) throughout the life cycle,
and especially in late middle age, women in this Lebanese community experience
greater life satisfaction than men.
Citation
Doctor of PhilosophyPublisher
University of Nairobi, College of Humanities and Social Sciences