A review of 'Emirati Women: Generations of Change' by Jane Bristol-Rhys

Jane Bristol-Rhys provides in her book Emirati Women: Generations of Change an interesting new look at the lives of UAE women. Bristol-Rhys's main focus is on the ways in which three different generations of Emirati women have dealt with the sudden changes ensuing from the discovery of oil and phenomenal economic growth from the 1950s onwards. Using gender and generation as key lenses of her analysis, Bristol-Rhys reveals the differing impacts that the fast economic transformations have had on political, social, and cultural gendered dynamics and — more specifically — the local understandings, perceptions, and viewpoints thereof.

The economic boom not only has initiated political developments, such as the installation of a strong social welfare system through government incentives and subsidies, but also has had a profound impact on societal transformations. Emirati citizens, just as their country, have had to undergo a remaking. While Emirati identity constructions shift between romanticised depictions of tribal life in the pre-oil desert and representations of modern citizens in the new nation-state, expatriate perceptions of UAE nationals are rarely positive, commonly stereotyping them as rich hyper-consumerists with little taste, culture, or sensitivities. It is at this level of perceived and represented identities that Bristol-Rhys' collection of different women's voices — that is, of those parts of society probably most affected but least heard — can shed new light on Emiratis' lived experiences of change over the past decades.