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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 January 2009
Contemporary feminists have stressed the importance of women's networks in empowering women. In the Western context, professional networks, support groups, and the availability of role models are seen to provide a collective basis for the development of confidence and self-esteem as well as a potential base for political action. Feminist attention to the Middle East has uncovered patterns of interaction suggesting that there, too, women have found in feminine networks both the basis for power and the personal attributes that undergird social competence. Aswad, for example, describes the kabul, an upper-class formal visitation network in Turkey with distinct political overtones. Women exchange information that might be dismissed as gossip were it not for the fact that participants are from powerful land-owning families, and the discussions have impact well beyond the immediate setting.1
Author's note: The research for this article was supported by a grant from the American Institute for Maghrebi Studies and by the Florida International University Faculty Development Fund, and writing support came from the McKnight Programs in Higher Education. Field research was facilitated by the Centre d'Etudes maghrebines à Tunis and by the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. The author thanks the 12 Tunisian politicians who granted lengthy interviews and wishes to acknowledge the cooperation of local officials in four Tunisian municipalities and the assistance of Peter Lifton, Cathy Wolfheim, and 10 advanced FlU psychology students who read and evaluated interview transcripts for this study.
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9 For this task, 10 American male and female advanced psychology students were recruited, as were 1 public health specialist with several years of experience working with Tunisian women, and 1 American practicing psychologist trained in personality assessment. The latter two were specially enlisted as an internal control for validity of assessment. All judges were asked to read the interview transcripts (translated from French into English for the benefit of the 11 nonfrancophone judges) and evaluate the 12 subjects with regard to the trait of efficacy. To assist them in interpreting interview responses and to sensitize them to cultural differences, judges were provided written background materials, and the student judges were required to attend a lengthy lecture on Tunisian family and culture.
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