Gender Equality in Rural Tunisia Versus Gender Equality in Urban Tunisia - Research Proposal Example

Outline Gender equality in rural Tunisia versus gender equality in Urban Tunisia with respect to education and labor force participation Description: The status of females is one of the most advantageous in Tunisia among North Africa which can be a comparison to few zones of Europe’s southern parts. The government of Tunisia has efficiently emphasized on the equality of sexes and also on promoting development in social aspect for decades, transforming into fruitful outcomes. However, rural lives to some extent remaining in traditional, women in Tunisia still have to go a long way to achieve the equality in true sense. Thus it would be quite interesting to find gap in the field of gender equality in rural and urban sector of Tunisia with respect to education and labor force participation. References: 1. Euromed. (2010). REGIONAL ROUNDTABLE REPORT : Situation Analysis: Women’s Rights and Gender Equality in the Southern Mediterranean. Retrieved from www.euromedgenderequality.org. on 31st March, 2011. 2. Euromed. (2009). National Situation Analysis Report: Womens Human Rights and Gender Equality: Tunisia. Retrieved from www.euromedgenderequality.org. on 25th March, 2011. 3. Afrol News. (2011). Tunisia Gender Profile. Retrieved from http://www.afrol.com/features/13250 on 25th March, 2011. 4. EuroMesco. (2006). Women as Full Participants in the Euro-Mediterranean Community of Democratic States : A EuroMeSCo Report. European Commission. 5. Trabelsi, S. (2010). Regional inequality of education in Tunisia: an evaluation by the Gini index. Retrieved from http://www.ps2d.net/media/TRABELSI%20Salwa.pdf on 25th March, 2011. Research Proposal: Introduction: The status of females is one of the most advantageous in Tunisia among North Africa which can be a comparison to few zones of Europe’s southern parts. The government of Tunisia has efficiently emphasized on the equality of sexes and also on promoting development in social aspect for decades, transforming into fruitful outcomes. However, rural lives to some extent remaining in traditional, women in Tunisia still have to go a long way to achieve the equality in true sense. Thus it would be quite interesting to find gap in the field of gender equality in rural and urban sector of Tunisia with respect to education and labor force participation. Review of existing literatures: Not being a really rich nation, the people of Tunisia still succeeded in transforming it into a modern society; particularly in areas a little urbanized. Having an expected life of more than 70 years and medical services accessed universally, noticeable profits are collected from the social sectors, having significant contribution to the position of women in Tunisia. Modification of constitutional legislation for promoting gender equality has been done as well, but practicing laws as well as traditions are still creating obstacles in the way of true changes in many way. (Euromed, 2010). Hard endeavors are made while the last decade was running in order to promote the gender equality by legislation as well as social and economic means. As the rates of literacy for women are increasing gradually, females are now distinctly over smarting males in various field of higher education. Females are eventually taking entry into work force and leading positions these days. Legislation is undergoing continuous updates in order to promote the equality in gender. While equality in gender is given by the country’s law and supported by the government, the patriarchal heritage of Tunisia is still in a hindering progress. In the cases of, a family and inheritance court normally ruled by shari’a law of Muslims, which in these cases imposes discrimination against women. The traditional values are being lost in the most families in Tunisia as a new generation is growing up. (Euromed, 2010; Euromed, 2009) The constitution of Tunisia says about the equality of rights as well as responsibilities among all the citizens and everyone comes equally under the laws. Tunisia has gone through legislation with an introduction to equality within the married couples, which includes women granted to all the rights giving the sir name to their children having an unknown father starting from 1995. The Legislation also has prohibition for sexual harassments, rape cases which includes spousal rape as well, and household violence. The laws are usually upheld with the help of governments and courts. Household violence is punishable even strictly than all other sort of violence. Violence counter women are considered as a very negligible problem among Tunisian people, but there is no statistics comprehensive enough found to exist. While the courts are inclined regarding household violence which has to be taken care by the family, though the point of views are now gradually changing in a low pace with a increasing frequency of cases being brought to the court of law. (EuroMesco, 2006). As turned out to be the nation of the region most advanced in social aspect and possibly of the whole African continent. All the hard efforts given for decades and investments in the social sectors has taken Tunisia far above from the African average level. However, large amount of underprivileged peoples are still there with a much less access to public services. Poverty sustains and joblessness is the main issue. These problems affect women worse. (EuroMesco, 2006). In spite of these issues, the normal scenario is an encouragement for the Tunisian women. For the gender as well as the social policies of government, enrolling both females and males in primary school has become approximately universal in the past years. Literacy rate in females have increased from 55% to 64% in between 1995 to 2003, as known from the national statistics. However it remains significantly below literacy percentage of males for the tremendous lagging previously. (Euromed, 2009) With efficient concentration on womens social status, health as well as education, Tunisians has brought off to achieve the least population increment rate around North Africa which is 1.1 percent per year. It is too low comparing with Algeria and Morocco (1.65%), Egypt (1.88%). Shockingly the rate is this much low and still decreasing in spite of the longer life span and lower infant mortality rate than the other North African countries. These flows are reflected in the comparatively pushed ahead health sectors of Tunisia. Now days they are accessible to health zones with almost all possible services all through the country. Uses of contraceptives have been seen among the married women of the country highly. They have successfully avoided the pandemic AIDS. (Trabelsi, 2010; Afrol News, 2011). While Tunisian females constantly are reducing the educational distance between genders, professional life however remains under domination of men. Women consist of almost 30 % of the working force and legal issues require equality in pay for same work. In the civil sector, women are taking part rapidly and increasingly and measures have been taken to reduce the discrimination. In case of private sectors, nevertheless, female employment is much low and socio-economic discrimination is quite visible. Women in growing numbers are taking entry into the working force; employment is particular in textile business, manufacturing, health as well as agricultural fields. Most significantly women represent almost half of the employ vacancies in the industrial and health sector. (Trabelsi, 2010; Afrol News, 2011). Most of the existing literature reviewed did not put sole attention on the issue of gender inequality in education and workforce participation. Even if some studies have tried to figure out these differences, they ignore gap in urban and rural areas in Tunisia. Hence, it would be quite interesting to find out whether there exists any gender inequality in rural Tunisia and in Urban Tunisia with respect to education and labor force participation. Thus the research questions of the proposed research would be: 1. Does there exist any gender inequality in rural Tunisia and in Urban Tunisia with respect to education? 2. Does there exist any gender inequality in rural Tunisia and in Urban Tunisia with respect to labor force participation? Methodology: In order to answer these questions, some well designed methods should be implemented. There are two specific research methods – the quantitative and the qualitative methods. These may be combined to give the ‘mixed-method’ approach, but they will be discussed separately in this chapter. In discussing them, four specific areas will be looked at. These are: (1) Types of data collected, (2) Instruments used to collect the data, (3) Fundamental differences in how both types of research are conducted, and (4) Procedures used to analyze the data. For each one of these areas, some examples will be addressed for both types of research methods so that the comprehensiveness of these methods can be seen (Diaz & O’Hanlon, 2001). Based on the discussions presented, the choice of the method to be used will be rationalized. Quantitative research reveals information that is subjective because the participants’ input serves as the primary source of information to the researcher (Creswell, 2001). Types of data collected in quantitative research include the answers in response to conducted surveys, the statistical information that can be found either through the use of surveys or through a more expanded study, the comparison data that can be collected between one individual or group and another, and data that is raw and needs to be coded on a yes/no basis. This is contrasted to the longer answers that are often collected and analyzed in qualitative research where the opinions of the subjects are generally examined (Diaz & O’Hanlon, 2001). Instruments used to collect the data include statistics, surveys, comparisons, and SPSS services. There are also fundamental differences in how both types of research are conducted which will be discussed later in this chapter, along with the procedures that are used to analyze the data. Qualitative research generates data that is based on the participants’ own categories of meaning, it is useful for studying a limited number of cases in depth, and tends to collect data in naturalistic settings (Creswell, 2001). Types of data collected generally involve the opinions and beliefs of the researcher and the subjects that are being examined, through the use of various instruments. Instruments used to collect the data include case studies, interviews, focus groups and observation (Creswell, 1994). Creswell (2001) describes qualitative research as an exploratory focus, while quantitative research focuses on explanatory inquiry. In addition, with the qualitative approach the researcher is more subjective. In other words, qualitative research is used when the researcher’s inquiry is based on the participant’s opinion about a particular situation. In that method, the researcher wants to gather subjective data, therefore his personal knowledge and research methodology influences the research to some degree. One of the most important outcomes with this method is that it highlights the researcher’s views during the research process. (Creswell, 1994). For the present study qualitative method should be chosen. And for conducting qualitative research primary survey is needed which should be carried on by conducting personal interviews. In order to increase validity and reliability of the research, the sample size should not be very small. But the sample size should be such that the given budget can afford that. For conducting the research $10,000 has been approved. So we can not consider a very big sample size. For the purpose of the present study a sample size of 100 individuals (25 male and 25 female) would be chosen. Among them, 25 individuals should be from rural areas and remaining 25 should be from urban areas in order to maintain parity. In order to shorten the time period I need a few assistants. I will consider three assistants. Among four of us, two would conduct interviews in rural areas and other two would conduct interviews in urban areas. If the assistants are students, their costs should be lower than professional people. I will pay $1000 each to the three assistants. References: 1. Euromed. (2010). REGIONAL ROUNDTABLE REPORT : Situation Analysis: Women’s Rights and Gender Equality in the Southern Mediterranean. Retrieved from www.euromedgenderequality.org. on 31st March, 2011. 2. Euromed. (2009). National Situation Analysis Report: Womens Human Rights and Gender Equality: Tunisia. Retrieved from www.euromedgenderequality.org. on 25th March, 2011. 3. Afrol News. (2011). Tunisia Gender Profile. Retrieved from http://www.afrol.com/features/13250 on 25th March, 2011. 4. EuroMesco. (2006). Women as Full Participants in the Euro-Mediterranean Community of Democratic States : A EuroMeSCo Report. European Commission. 5. Trabelsi, S. (2010). Regional inequality of education in Tunisia: an evaluation by the Gini index. Retrieved from http://www.ps2d.net/media/TRABELSI%20Salwa.pdf on 25th March, 2011. 6. Creswell, J. W. (2001) Educational research: Planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. OH: Merrill/Prentice-Hall. 7. Creswell, J. W. (1994). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative approaches. Sage Publications, Inc. Thousand Oaks: CA. 8. Diaz K, OHanlon N. (2001). Hot Topics on the Web: Strategies for Research. Reference, and User Services Quarterly, 41(1):25-29 Read More