| List of tables | p. x |
| Preface | p. xi |
| List of abbreviations | p. xiv |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| The UN Decade for Women | p. 1 |
| The Arab world and the UN Decade | p. 2 |
| The Convention's rocky road | p. 4 |
| Change at the grassroots level | p. 5 |
| Tough times ahead | p. 6 |
| The great family law debate | p. 9 |
| A slow pace of change | p. 10 |
| The Arab family: the key to society | p. 12 |
| Women: the key to the family | p. 13 |
| 'Equivalent' under the law | p. 14 |
| The early days of Islam | p. 15 |
| Restrictive interpretations | p. 16 |
| The secular approach: Turkey | p. 20 |
| Nationalism vs reform: Tunisia's 'Islamic secularism' | p. 22 |
| An 'Islamic Marxist' approach: Democratic Yemen | p. 24 |
| Leaving the law to the courts: Bahrain and Kuwait | p. 25 |
| The debate on identity, religion and rights: Algeria | p. 26 |
| The Egyptian family law saga | p. 29 |
| Egyptian women argue their case | p. 31 |
| A small step for womankind... | p. 35 |
| Appendix | p. 36 |
| Cross-currents conservative and liberal | p. 38 |
| 'Cultural loyalty' and the limits of debate | p. 39 |
| Cultural colonialism | p. 41 |
| Cultural loyalty and the status of women | p. 43 |
| Feminism vs nationalism | p. 45 |
| The establishment outlook | p. 47 |
| Defining the role of religion in society | p. 48 |
| Organisational strength | p. 49 |
| Reaching out to women | p. 50 |
| The uses of veiling | p. 51 |
| Islamic liberation | p. 53 |
| How to define the role of women | p. 56 |
| The liberal nationalists | p. 57 |
| Questioning the framework | p. 59 |
| The debate goes on | p. 61 |
| Arab women in the workforce | p. 63 |
| Redefining development | p. 63 |
| Some positive indicators | p. 65 |
| And some negative indicators | p. 68 |
| Working women: unreliable statistics | p. 72 |
| Three conditions: need, opportunity, ability | p. 73 |
| The cultural thesis: an example from Lebanon | p. 75 |
| Need at the state level--and the phenomenon of labour migration | p. 77 |
| Labour migration and the role of women | p. 78 |
| Opportunity at the state level: planning for women | p. 80 |
| Arab labour legislation on women | p. 83 |
| The gap between theory and practice | p. 85 |
| Need and opportunity at the popular level | p. 86 |
| Work and public activity: two sets of attitudes | p. 89 |
| The third condition: ability | p. 91 |
| Need, opportunity, ability | p. 92 |
| Jordanian women's liberating forces: inflation and labour migration | p. 94 |
| Need at the state level: from unemployment to labour shortage | p. 94 |
| Ability: the female labour pool | p. 95 |
| Creating opportunity: planning for women | p. 98 |
| Self-reliance vs self-help | p. 99 |
| Legislation and 'consciousness-raising' | p. 101 |
| Attitudes of Jordanian employers | p. 103 |
| Need at the popular level | p. 105 |
| Change in the village, too | p. 109 |
| New avenues open up | p. 110 |
| The pendulum swings | p. 112 |
| The Arab Gulf states: demand but no supply | p. 116 |
| A flood of foreign manpower | p. 116 |
| Opportunity knocks, not too loudly | p. 119 |
| Social attitudes and opportunity at the popular level | p. 121 |
| Colonisation in reverse, and the question of identity | p. 123 |
| Social alarm bells and foreign nursemaids | p. 125 |
| Changing attitudes to marriage | p. 127 |
| The young professionals | p. 128 |
| The women professionals | p. 130 |
| Tug of war on women's work | p. 132 |
| Ability: the need for skills | p. 134 |
| Work for work's sake | p. 135 |
| Power past and future | p. 138 |
| Defining power | p. 138 |
| Negotiating power | p. 141 |
| Early women reformers and nationalism | p. 143 |
| Women's groups, official and unofficial | p. 147 |
| The right to vote (when parliament exists) | p. 149 |
| Seeking other avenues for change | p. 152 |
| Networking, and cultural maturity | p. 156 |
| Social, economic and national liberation | p. 158 |
| Information as a source of power | p. 161 |
| Empowering people | p. 164 |
| Bibliography | p. 166 |
| Index | p. 173 |
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