Thesis explores the status of Moroccan women
■A graduate student finds
that women do better in
villages working with a non
governmental organization
By Serena Markstrom
Oregon Daily Emerald
For the planning, public policy
and management department’s fi
nal Geographic Society meeting,
Rose Armour presented her re
search findings after spending
nine months in Morocco shadow
ing and surveying women for her
masters thesis.
Armour spent time in four rural
Moroccan villages looking at lead
ership, education, health and in
come generation activity, compar
ing her field study results with
the findings in a 1997 UNICEF
survey.
Since 1997, the Modular ap
proach of the Near East Founda
tion, a New York-based non-gov
ernmental organization that
promotes sustainable develop
ment has been in place in two of
the villages. Armour’s research
compared NEF villages to non
NEF villages.
In the two NEF villages literacy
rates were 20 percent or higher,
but in non-NEF villages none of
the women could read and write.
Jeffrey Magoto, director of the
Yamada Language Center, spent
1978 through 1980 in Morocco as
a Peace Corps volunteer and said
he was surprised that the NEF
had so much success in improv
ing literacy rates.
“It shows what they were trying
to do was working,” Magoto said.
The main source of income in
the southern Moroccan villages is
weaving, with some women
spending as much as eight hours
per day at the task. The men do
not weave but they have complete
control of selling the product in
markets. Part of the NEF program
is increasing the amount of voice
women have in village decisions.
“They have no control over the
marketing of their product,” Ar
mour said, adding that women
earn about five cents per hour for
each rug, which take about two
weeks to weave.
Elizabeth Wartluft, a doctorate
student in anthropology who also
spent time in Morocco as a Peace
Corps volunteer in the late 80s,
said she was impressed that
women in NEF villages are gain
ing decision-making power.
“That women are getting input
on council is astonishing,” she
said.
When Armour surveyed the
men, they told her that since the
NEF arrived in 1987, the women
have increased their levels of
self-confidence and are more op
timistic about their futures than
in non-NEF villages.
Because of the nature of the
culture, Armour could not con
duct her surveys alone with the
women. At first this bothered
her, she said, but it ended up be
ing an advantage.
The group setting worked as a
.check system because if one
woman said, for example, her av
erage workload per day for a par
ticular task, another woman
Catharine Kendall Emerald
Rose Armour presents her graduate thesis research in ‘Empowering Women Through
Rural Gender Developments' to the Geographical Society Tuesday evening.
would say whether she was exag
gerating.
“It made it more honest that
they had to do it in a group,” Ar
mour said.
Armour also shadowed one
woman in each of the four vil
lages, often conducting inter
views in the kitchen because it
was the only place she and her
hired interpreter could be alone
with the women.
“They had never been asked
about this stuff," she said. “The
women were overwhelmingly ea
ger to talk.”
Registering
continued from page 1
For young men born in 1980
who are now 19 and 20 years old,
the average age for college fresh
man, the compliance rate is about
83 percent, Brodsky said.
A state-by-state survey issued
by the agency showed some large
states had low registration levels
among men — California with 79
percent and Texas at 77 percent.
New Hampshire, by contrast,
ranked highest with 95 percent.
The law requires all young men
living in the United States to reg
ister with the Selective Service
within 30 days of their 18th birth
day. That includes immigrants
and non-citizen residents of the
United States.
The names are gathered in case
a national emergency should re
quire a military draft. The last ac
tual draft was in 1973 near the end
of the Vietnam era.
Failure to register can cost
young men their chance at finan
cial aid from the Free Application
for Federal Student Aid, govern
ment loans and grants, job train
ing, government jobs and citizen
ship for male immigrants.
It is also a felony punishable by
up to five years in jaii or prison
and a fine of up to $250,000, but
such cases are rarely prosecuted.
The last prosecution was in 1985,
according to agency officials.
ROTC Major Kevin Bolan said
that a person in the ROTG pro
gram couldn’t be drafted. The
ROTC contracts people to serve
full-time as active duty Army offi
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cers or pursue a career and serve
part-time with the National Guard
or Reserves.
“We will probably try to in
crease awareness of our students
to make them aware of this
through our classes because most
of our students are not in the
ROTC program, and they need to
comply with those guidelines and
register,” Bolan said. “My recom
mendation is that people go ahead
and comply.”
Assistant Director of Student Fi
nancial Aid Jim Gilmour said that
male students at the University do
need to submit their names to Se
lective Service in order to receive
financial aid. He said that there
have only been a handful of stu
dents over time at the University
who couldn’t receive finanrigl aid
because they were too old and
couldn’t register for the draft.
“In general, our students are reg
istered for Selective Service and
therefore are qualified to receive fi
nancial aid,” Gilmour said.
The Associated Press contributed to this
article.
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