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Working Those Connections: Exploring Arab Women's ISSUE BRIEF 07.17.15 Working Those Connections: Exploring Arab Women’s Differential Access to Opportunity in the Middle East and North Africa Gail Buttorff, Ph.D., Contributing Expert, Women's Rights in the Middle East Program Bozena Welborne, Ph.D., Contributing Expert, Women's Rights in the Middle East Program INTRODUCTION Marwa Shalaby, Ph.D., has highlighted the Wasta has variously been defined as importance of providing women in the Middle a “special influence by members of the East and North Africa (MENA) with economic same group or tribe”3 or “mediation and opportunities as a way to enhance their intercession”4 on the part of a specific political influence.1 Despite enviable increases individual or community. In Arabic, the in educational attainment, women have term, according to Barnett et al.,5 captures not really seen their achievements translate “an implicit social contract, typically within into meaningful economic participation and a tribal group, which obliges those within access, with MENA countries reporting some the group to provide assistance (favorable of the lowest female labor participation rates treatment) to others within that group.” in the world at 25.2 percent. Today, wasta is the most commonly used Shalaby cites the importance of the of this “intercessory” type6 and is often World Development Report’s definition of compared to the notion of quanxi in China.7 gender equality as a useful benchmark for Possessing wasta allows individuals assessing progress in terms of facilitating in positions of power the opportunity to women’s agency: “the accumulation of grant assistance when requested, while endowments (education, health, physical others use wasta to streamline bureaucratic Wasta affords easier assets); the use of those endowments processes and gain access more easily to access to government to take up economic opportunities and employment, relevant legal documentation contracts and helps generate incomes; and the application (e.g., driver’s and business licenses, navigate arcane of those endowments to take actions, or identity cards, passports, etc.), and even and oftentimes agency, affecting individual and household university admission.8 In the political well-being.”2 While she identified that realm, wasta affords easier access to arbitrary government women have indeed made progress in government contracts and helps navigate institutions and rules accumulating some of these “necessary arcane and oftentimes arbitrary government endowments,” there is one form of social institutions and rules. Importantly, wasta capital integral to their ability to exercise is not perceived as corruption across MENA full political, economic, and social agency in societies and is not criminalized in the same the MENA that women may fare less well in way as in Western countries.9 accumulating: wasta. RICE UNIVERSITY'S BAKER INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY // ISSUE BRIEF // 07.17.15 Figure 1 reveals striking differences WASTA USE IN THE MENA across the six countries surveyed in terms Considering the pervasiveness of wasta in of the proportion of men and women who Arab life, a fundamental question arises: Do reported using wasta in the previous five women and men have differential access to years. Algeria, Morocco, and Lebanon all wasta? Similarly, what kind of differences in demonstrate relatively similar levels of possessing and pursuing wasta might emerge wasta usage across the genders, although across genders? Scholarship on whether the the overall usage rates vary across the usage of wasta is gendered is very limited. three countries. In Jordan, Palestine, and However, most research connects it to Yemen, by contrast, men and women exhibit tribal intermediary practices. The generally dramatic differences in wasta usage. In conservative tribal attitudes toward women Yemen, for example, 46 percent of men may have a lasting impact in how both men reported having used wasta, compared to and women navigate and interpret modernity only 29.05 percent of women. We initially through the institution of wasta.10 suspect this may be partially due to the In a preliminary examination of these fact that Morocco and Lebanon, if not questions, we use the first wave of the Arab Algeria, also have more women in the labor Barometer Survey, conducted from 2006 to force, affording them more opportunity 2007 across Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, Yemen, to use wasta. In 2007, women made up Lebanon, and Palestine. The survey posed 28.5 percent of the total labor force in two questions about wasta: (1) During the Morocco and 23.5 percent in Lebanon, but past five years, have you ever used wasta to only 14.5 percent in Algeria. They made achieve something personal or family-related, up approximately 17 percent of the labor or to resolve a neighborhood problem? and force in Jordan and Palestine, as well as a 11 (2) Please list the type of wasta. staggering 25 percent in Yemen. Yet the reverse could also be true: that wasta allows privileged women more access to the labor force to begin with. The story is further complicated when we consider how wasta usage differs across men and women in FIGURE 1 — USE OF WASTA IN THE MENA BY GENDER terms of demographic characteristics. Across all countries, we do not observe large differences in wasta usage by marital status. This is somewhat surprising considering that previous research in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries showed women claiming they tended to rely on wasta through their spouses and effectively only had indirect access to it as a form of social capital.12 In most countries, with the exception of Lebanon, wasta usage seems to be higher among older generations. Yemen has a disproportionate amount of over-65 male individuals reported using wasta and more people across the age spectrum use wasta in general. In Jordan, roughly similar levels of wasta usage appear across the age groups of both genders, but among women reliance on wasta appears to increase gradually with age. We also see similar patterns in Algeria and Palestine. 2 WORKING THOSE CONNECTIONS FIGURE 2 — WASTA TYPES USED BY GENDER AND COUNTRY Proportion of Respondents Using Type of Wasta of Wasta Proportion of Respondents Using Type Government officials Government officials or community leaders Religious official Members of parliament Traditional leaders (head of tribe) Civil society organizations Other In terms of education, the most sizable used. This can be seen from Figure 2, which outlier is Yemen, with men with primary presents the type of wasta used among school education reporting very high those respondents who reported using it in levels of wasta use and the usage across the last five years by gender and by country. education levels varying substantially—more In terms of the types of wasta, there so than in other cases where education seems to be a greater pattern of relying on level does not seem to make as much of a government officials, traditional leaders, difference, except perhaps in the case of and government leaders, as well as sources highly educated men in Palestine. We also classified as “other” across both genders. observe better-educated women—those Neither gender turns to religious leaders for with at least a high school diploma—in wasta. Algeria shows a surprising reliance on Yemen disproportionately using wasta. A civil society organization by both men and similar trend appears in Jordan, but among women, while the Lebanese tend to turn to women: those with at least some post- members of parliament (MPs). Interestingly, secondary education (diploma, B.A., M.A., in Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, and Morocco, Ph.D.) tended to use wasta more. roughly the same number of men and Although there do not appear to be women reported using MPs for wasta. The clear patterns between gender and the extent of use, however, varied across the use of wasta across key demographic countries from a high of 34 percent turning characteristics, we do observe interesting to MPs in Lebanon to less than 10 percent in variation both across gender and across Palestine and Morocco. countries in the type of wasta commonly 3 RICE UNIVERSITY'S BAKER INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY // ISSUE BRIEF // 07.17.15 We also observe big differences across countries, more women than men reported the genders in their reliance on other types civil society organization (NGOs) as a of government officials for wasta in Jordan type of wasta used, which further aligns (34.78 percent for men and 18.75 percent with the notion that women may have to for women), Palestine (43.39 percent for choose informal, private channels to seize men and 33.75 percent for women), Algeria opportunity more so than men. (20.83 percent for men and 6.06 percent for women) and Yemen (22.07 for men and 34.74 for women). In Lebanon and LOOKING AHEAD Morocco, we note both men and women display equal usage rates for government What does this all mean? It seems to signify officials. More generally, in these two that the gendered nature of wasta certainly countries we encounter small differences varies across contexts. Surprisingly, men across gender for the type of wasta used. and women do not differ substantially in Only in Yemen did women report relying on wasta usage across basic demographic government officials at a much higher rate characteristics such as age, education, than did men. The proportion of Yemeni and marital status overall. More of the men, however, that reported using MPs interesting variation in wasta usage and (9.66 percent) and governorate officials demographics is perhaps found across or community leaders (20.69 percent) countries than across genders. Women In Jordan, Palestine, was twice as high as that for women (4.21 and men do, however, differ in terms of and Yemen, by contrast, percent and 10.53 percent, respectively).
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