Survival Strategies: Household Economics in Modern Cairo

Through various detailed descriptions of household economics in Cairo, Egypt, Homa Hoodfar provides audiences with an opportunity to learn about Modern-day Muslim families. Living among her informants, she was able to capture the daily lives of low-income families over the course of a decade. She gathered extensive research and investigated the various social and economic survival strategies that these families utilized. In Between Marriage and the Market, Hoodfar aims to illustrate how the preexisting economic and social constraints in Egyptian society have a heavy influence over the household economy as well as the individual members’ survival strategies (5, 11, 16, 17). She is successful in providing ample evidence to support her argument. Hoodfar imparts exemplary with her discussion of gender roles and Egypt’s poor economic.

Justified by tradition and religious beliefs, it is accepted that in this culture there is a sexual division of labor that places different demands on males and females (80-81). All of Hoodfar’s female informants stated that a woman’s primary duty was to “attend to her home, her children, and her husband” (133). Meanwhile, a great emphasis is placed on the men to be the breadwinners of the family, in addition to being good fathers and husbands (36). These rigid gender roles have a large impact on the household, affecting where and why women work. Women’s participation in the labor market was heavily influenced by their domestic responsibilities, staying locally in the informal sector where they can easily care for their children (140). Zayanab, one of Hoodfar’s female informants stated, “By selling soaked beans in the market, I can also look after my two little boys without having to take them to my