THE PRICE OF CHANGE

...These films [including A Veiled Revolution, The Price of Change, and Women under Siege] are sensitive, accurate, exciting, educational, and very current. Not only do they reverse stereotypes of women's roles, but they add to the understanding of male roles as well. B. Aswad

26 minutes Colour 1982
Film-makers: Marilyn Gaunt and Elizabeth Fernea

Over the last sixty years, women in Egypt have been entering the workforce; today nearly 40 per cent contribute to the family income. In a country where work for women outside the home has been considered shameful, the effects of this change are far-reaching. This film explores the changes through the eyes and experiences of four women.

The first scenes of the film allow the viewer into the home and family of a village leader in family planning. Although the birth rate in Egypt continues to rise alarmingly, only two per cent of women use contraceptives. In the village of Shanow, a local woman acts as family planning advisor and distributes contraceptives. In emergencies, she can call on a trained doctor, but due to the trust this local woman has created between herself and the other women, use of contraception in Shanow has risen to thirty per cent. In one delightful scene, women give their feelings and opinions about birth control while they wait to pick up their contraceptives.

From the village we move to Cairo to explore the work of a woman member of parliament. We follow her through her constituency while she describes how she discovered that she could best represent the women by introducing family planning clinics and co-operative workshops. One such workshop is run by Bayada, a widow. Overcrowding in the schools has resulted in many women not learning how to read or write. Bayada's workshop teaches them skills while other workshops teach them the literacy they need for better jobs.

The final segment of the film reveals the price an individual woman may have to pay to work. Here we meet Matilda whose husband is an invalid and who works for 35 US dollars a month in a factory to support her family. In theory the factories pay equally for equal work, but in practice this seldom occurs. Matilda's husband tries to supplement the family income by making jewellery and selling it through relatives at the market, but Matilda is the breadwinner, takes care of the household duties, helps the children with homework, and in general sees to the needs of the family. She seems to regard her status as a working woman with a mixture of pride and shame, an emotion shared by several of the women in the film.

The overall effect of this film is compelling. It is particularly effective when shown with A Veiled Revolution, also set in Egypt and made by the same producer and director. Elizabeth Fernea has provided a study guide for this film and it is recommended for classroom use. The study guide is available from: Elizabeth Fernea, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712-1193, USA. Catalogue number (16mm): 3RA125 £9.

J.P. Allman (ed.), 1978. Women's Status and Fertility in the Muslim World. Praeger Publishers, New York.

B. Aswad, 1985. Review of the film. American Anthropologist, Vol. 87, pp. 233-35.

L. Beck and N. Keddie, 1979. Women in the Muslim World. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA.

E.W. Fernea, 1982. A Study Guide to the Film `The Price of Change'. University of Texas Film Library, Austin.

E.W. Fernea (ed.), 1985. Women and the Family in the Middle East. University of Texas Press, Austin.

S. Gadalla, 1978. Is There Hope? Fertility and Family Planning in a Rural Egyptian Community. Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

J. Tucker, 1976. `Egyptian Women in the Workforce: An Historical Survey'. MERIP Reports, No.50

N.H. Youssef, 1971. `Social Structure and Female Labour Force: Case of Women Workers in Muslim Middle Eastern Countries'. Demography, Vol. 8, No. 4, p. 427.