ABSTRACT
In the patriarchal countries of the MENA region, the traditional gender paradigm which prescribes men as the breadwinners whilst women as homemakers continues to prevail. This chapter explores change and continuity in the lives of middle-class Egyptian women after marriage with regards to their daily practices of domestic labour. It explores both the daily activities of women and the expectations placed on them to carry out domestic tasks, and finds that Egyptian women’s primary work is to perform intensive domestic labour and care for husbands and children. Women of this study were found to consider this division of labour as natural but unequal in marriage, with married women bearing heavy domestic responsibilities regardless of their labour market participation. The intersectionality of gender and class in this chapter also illustrates that despite a woman’s economic or social standing, she is still responsible for all domestic and reproductive duties. Nevertheless, this chapter illustrates that upper-middle-class women have the advantage of being able to afford to outsource their private sphere roles to hired services. In terms of domestic duties, lower-middle-class women were also found more likely to bear the burden of domestic chores themselves due to financial constraints as well as identifying their sole role as being a stay-at-home mother.
