Sex Roles DOI 10.1007/s11199-016-0708-9 ORIGINAL ARTICLE The Patriarchal Bargain in a Context of Rapid Changes to Normative Gender Roles: Young Arab Women’s Role Conflict in Qatar Laurie James-Hawkins1 & Yara Qutteina2 & Kathryn M. Yount1,3 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016 Abstract Social norms in patriarchal countries in the Middle Keywords Emerging adulthood . Islam . Middle East . East are changing at differing rates. In Qatar, expectations Patriarchy . Qualitative research . Sex roles . Social norms . about education have shifted, and women’s participation in Transition to adulthood higher education is normative. However, women’sparticipa- tion in the workforce remains relatively low, and women still are expected to perform all household and child-rearing activ- Norms about women’s participation in the labor force are ities. Interviews with 27 18–25 year-old Qatari women en- changing as a result of the demands of a global marketplace rolled in college in Qatar are used to illustrate the conflict (Baki 2004;Mills2003). Currently, wealthy countries in the between norms about education, workforce, and family. Gulf with small native populations rely heavily on imported Many young women resolve this normative conflict by giving labor (Forstenlechner and Rutledge 2010), and governments preference to family over work and education. Other women in these countries want to increase the number of their native hold conflicting norms and goals for their future without ac- population participating in the labor force. One way govern- knowledging the normative conflict. Overall, young women ments have worked to achieve this increase is to encourage in this sample feared divorce, were uncertain about customary women to pursue education and find employment (Jakobsen family safety nets, and thus desired financial independence so 2010; Kapiszewski 2006). This strategy can be problematic they would be able to support themselves if they were left for oil-rich Islamic countries with conservative, strongly pa- alone later in life due to divorce, or the death of their husband. triarchal social structures when education leads women to de- The Qatari government should revisit the appropriateness of sire to increase their engagement in collective action (Ross continuing to emphasize the patriarchal family structure and 2008). Women often learn about career options in college socially conservative family norms, if they desire to advance despite their participation in higher education being framed women in their society. in the general populace as a tool to make women better wives and mothers (Ross 2008). Patriarchal Gulf Cooperation Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article Countries (GCC) rely on family structures with a gendered (doi:10.1007/s11199-016-0708-9) contains supplementary material, division of labor, wherein men function as breadwinners and which is available to authorized users. women as homemakers (Kandiyoti 1988;Moghadam2003, 2005). This arrangement has been called the patriarchal bar- * Laurie James-Hawkins gain (Moghadam 2003, 2005; Sharabi 1988). [email protected] Women in strongly patriarchal countries are considered the keepers of culture and the primary vessels for transmitting 1 Hubert Department of Global Health, Emory University, 1518 values to the next generation (Moghadam 2013;Olmsted Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA 2005). Given this, there is pressure on the state from the pop- 2 Social and Economic Survey Research Institute, Qatar University, ulace to maintain the patriarchal social order in the home Doha, Qatar (Hasso 2010;Olmsted2005). Thus, state-building goals come 3 Department of Sociology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, into conflict with customary norms about the family (Alvi USA 2005;Hasso2010;Kandiyoti2001). This tension results in Sex Roles educational and workforce norms becoming more inclusive of have emphasized that women’s education is valuable pri- women, while family norms continue to assign women sole marily for creating a strong family, because an educated responsibility for the home (Hasso 2010;Moghadam2013; woman makes a better companion and mother (Charrad Olmsted 2005). Accordingly, young women who have chosen 2011;Hasso2010; Moghadam 2013). to pursue a college education are in a unique bind. They have A consequence of women’s increased education in GCC aspirations for future workforce participation (Cherif 2010; countries has been a shift in how women view civil society Williams, Wallis, and Williams 2013), but also are expected (Moghadam 2013; Williams et al. 2013). As a result, more to maintain customary feminine roles within the home, includ- young women now desire to enter the workforce and become ing primary responsibility for childbearing and childrearing politically engaged with the state (Abu-Lughod 2006;Cherif (Hasso 2010;Moghadam2013;Olmsted2005). 2010;Moghadam2013; Williams et al. 2013). In the United Using interviews with 27 young Qatari women, we Arab Emirates, young women have become more aware of elucidate these conflicting norms and show how the patri- their rights and status in society, thus delaying marriage in archal bargain influences young women’s aspirations as pursuit of education (Hasso 2010). This pattern appears to they transition to adulthood in a context of rapid econom- hold in Qatar, as evidenced by the rising age at first marriage ic, social, and cultural change. We find that women have from 20 in 1986 to 24 in 2014 (Ministry of Development aspirations for higher education and employment but Planning and Statistics 2015) and a parallel rise in enrollment simultaneously hold customary norms about the family. in higher education (Qatar University 2016). Thus, young women are in a quandary, caught between Increased levels of education among women, however, social expectations to become a wife and mother and pur- have not led to a proportional increase in women’sem- suit of personal educational and workforce goals. ployment (Charrad 2011;Olmsted2005;Ross2008; Competing ideals shaped women’s aspirations and Rutledge, Madi, and Forstenlechner 2014). Thus, as choices in different ways and were, at least in part, reac- norms about education change, socially conservative tions to fear of future family instability and perceived norms about women’s role in the family persist, and the rising divorce rates in Qatar. persistence of conservative family norms presents barriers to women obtaining work outside the home (Moghadam 2013;Olmsted2005; Williams et al. 2013). This norma- Contradictory Political Goals tive lag has resulted in an educated population of women who are outside the labor force, leaving the state unable to Scholars have described the patriarchal bargain (Moghadam access their educational investment. 2003; Sharabi 1988) as women exchanging reproductive ser- At the same time, restrictions on divorce have loos- vices for financial support from men (Kandiyoti 1988; ened, but divorce as the primary right of men has been Moghadam 2003). Modern conceptions of the patriarchal bar- upheld (Moghadam 2003, 2005, 2013). As a result, di- gain have been framed as occurring within a Bneo-patriarchy^ vorced women often are impoverished, despite the osten- when the Bstate upholds the traditional order in a modernizing sible guarantee of support from their ex-husbands context^ (Moghadam 2003, p. 70). Classic patriarchy often is (Moghadam 2013). Impoverishment is especially likely linked to an agrarian social structure (Sharabi 1988), whereas if women have few natal family on which to rely neo-patriarchy is an adaptation of classic patriarchy that al- (Moghadam 2005;Olmsted2005). Thus, the neo- lows for a relationship between industrialization and custom- patriarchal social contract is in transition (Kandiyoti ary forms of patriarchy (Sharabi 1988). 1988, 2007;Olmsted2005). In the past, the social con- In Qatar, state goals targeting rapid economic growth tract promised women that the neo-patriarchal family conflict with state goals of maintaining the neo-patriarchal structure would provide a safety net for them in the event family structure (Alvi 2005; Hasso 2010;Kandiyoti2001; of divorce or death of a spouse. However, women now Moghadam 2003, 2005, 2013). Efforts on the part of the perceive the family as an institution on which they cannot state to increase education among women and the conse- necessarily depend (Olmsted 2005). Consequently, wom- quent rapid rise in women’s participation in higher educa- en have an increased desire for education so that they can tion (Moghadam 2013) have engendered fear that the neo- support themselves, yet they continue to face constraints patriarchal state will be undermined as women move into on non-family support systems, such as employment the labor force and away from the private sphere (Hasso (Kandiyoti 1988, 2007;Olmsted2005). The transitions 2010; Moghadam 2013). Accordingly, Qatari leaders have Qatar and other GCC countries are experiencing threaten kept a delicate balance between religion, as set in Shari’a the neo-patriarchal bargain and create dilemmas for young or family law in GCC countries, and state goals for eco- women experiencing the transition to adulthood during nomic growth. To maintain this balance, GCC states have which they must make choices about education, career, increased educational opportunities for women, but also and family. Sex Roles The Qatari Context about one-third pales in comparison to the 64 % increase in women’s higher education by 2007 (Altbach,