ABSTRACT
Development plans must ultimately be judged in terms of their effectiveness at the local level. The basic social unit in the village is the household, which may be either nuclear or extended. In 1961-1962 the national government embarked on a sweeping program of economic and social development which aimed to bring virtually all of the nation's agriculture and commerce into state cooperatives by 1969. The primary purpose of the agricultural cooperatives was to increase production through the pooling of small holdings into larger, more efficient production units which could benefit from better management, more sophisticated technology, and the economies of scale. The idea of political mobilization of the populace has always been an integral part of independent Tunisia's idea of national development, both as an end in itself and as a means of furthering economic and social development. Economic success is one such source of prestige which theoretically could bring about change in the status of women in the village.
