| This dissertation seeks to critically explore and assess the roles and input of Egyptian women, from various social backgrounds, throughout the revolution of January 25th, 2011 and their perceptions of the effects of the revolution on their future gender roles. Following an introduction to the Egyptian revolution as well as a comprehensive literature review discussing women in social movements both in general and in the context of the Egyptian revolution, a sociological framework, like that used by scholars Giddens and Hall, is advocated. This framework is used in order to analyze how certain social aspects - social class, religion, literacy rate, and area of residence - affect the extent to which Egyptian women participated in the revolution; the roles women played, if any, during the revolution; and how women perceive their future gender roles will change, or not, due to their participation in the revolution. This research was conducted in the form of semi-structured interviews with twelve Egyptian women from various backgrounds of the aforementioned social aspects. The analyses of the research findings indicate the following: diverse roles were played by these women; those women that expressed a strong sense of participation in the revolution were more at ease of defying gender norms than those who partook in the revolution through playing smaller roles or no roles at all; social class, literacy rate, and area of residence affected the ways in which women participated in the revolution, while religion did not; and finally social class and literacy affect the ways in which women perceive their future gender roles, while religion and area of residence do not. |
