ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses that gender and labor roles have more to do with demands of global economic factors, class, ethnicity, race, and the "national economy" than with broad categories like "the Third World" "the Middle East", or "Islam". Gender relations and gender roles have been neither static nor immune to global influences, nor has the hegemony of "patriarchy" alone been culpable in the subordination of women. Radical social, political, and economic changes have coalesced to challenge deeply ingrained prejudices against women, especially in urban areas, where women were previously confined to the domestic sphere. Since the unification of the two Yemens in 1990, several major developments have directly or indirectly affected gender roles and women's place in the work force. Despite the postrevolutionary stated constitutional guarantee of equal rights to all "citizens", the class system and the disenfranchisement of the minority lower classes still prevail in rural Yemen, where privileges and access to economic activities are allocated accordingly.
