Evolving Perceptions of Spinsterhood

In the Middle East and specifically in the Egyptian society

marriage is perceived as essential in any women's life, and
woman are expected to get married at a very early age. In a
society such as Egypt which is obsessed with following social
patterns, a never married female who has passed the expectant
age of marriage is labeled as Aanis which is the equivalent term
of a spinster, and is looked upon negatively because she is
thought of as missing out an essential part of life. Consequently,
among all social classes a spinster is surrounded by feelings of
shame, pity and is treated in an ill manner. The literature was able
to provide evidence for these challenges and obstacles faced by a
spinster. However, there was a noticeable gap in showing how
these challenges have changed, if at all, over the generations as
the number of single women has been on the rise. Therefore, the
primary purpose of this paper is to trace the social alterations, if
any, which have occurred in Egyptian societys perceptions of
spinsterhood.

Through studying the phenomenon I was able to discover

that the negative social categorisation of a spinster is not only
shameful for the women referred to. It also affects single young
girls by demonstrating overwhelming social pressure on them to
get married before they get categorised as spinsters, and suffer
the consequent stigma. Therefore, I decided to explore the
perceptions of spinsterhood in the past years, and consider the
extent to which these perceptions have changed, if at all, in the
context of the recent social change. This is because as Mustard
states The persons perceptions of a particular societal role
influence the amount of stress or depression they experience
when in that specific role. Thus, through proving that a positive
shift in the Egyptian societys perceptions of spinsterhood is
taking place, the trend would start to be adopted by a larger
number of people causing the negative stereotype to evolve. In
order to trace these social alterations, in the way Egyptian society
conceives a spinster, I had to identify the reasons behind these
negative perceptions in the first place, and if any change took
place in these contributing factors then the change in perceptions
would be the consequence of this change.

The idea that there is something wrong with staying

unmarried over the expectant age of marriage, and the social
stigma of being a Aanis has been present for so many years.
Nicole Glynn states that since the 19th century, women who
remained single past the expectant age of marriage were highly
stigmatised and labelled as spinsters. Through reviewing the
literature, I was able to outline the three main factors which
contributed to create this discrimination against unmarried
women in the Egyptian society. Religious views come in the first
place, secondly comes womens main role in the eyes of society,
and lastly comes media.
The first factor is religion which is considered to be playing a
critical role in creating the stigma suffered by unmarried women.
Heba Metwally states in The Role of Egyptian Film in
Stereotyping Single Women that religion is the main constructor
of social values in the Egyptian society, and that the three main
religions in Egypt which are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam make
marriage lawful and deeply desire for it (2007). Thus, in the
Egyptian society marriage is considered a critical social issue and
any woman who is still embracing a single status after passing

the expectant age of marriage is deviating from these traditional

social expectations and consequently suffers the labelling and the
stigma of being a Aanis.
Another reason behind the Egyptian societys disapproval of
unmarried women is gender roles. The ideology of the Egyptian
society is that a womans main role is being a wife and being a
mother. Thus, any woman who is still embracing a single status,
fell short of getting married and having children which means she
fell short of two roles that have always been considered her main
role as a woman in society. Thus, she suffers pity and ill manner
because she is thought of as missing the true meaning of life.
The third factor contributing to this negative social
categorisation is media. Media plays a vital role in shaping
societys perceptions and viewpoints (Metwally, 2007). Thus,
through medias presentation of unmarried women who passed
the expectant marriage age as desperate, ugly,rejected women
who were not able to full fill societys expectations, this social
image is reflected in how society perceives spinsters.
Conclusively, through tracing the three main reasons behind this

stigma it would be easier to define the reason behind the change

in social perceptions, if at allowed, that took place.
Due to the lack of available resources pertaining to the
current perceptions of spinsterhood, the primary research method
chosen for collecting this information was a survey. This method
was chosen because the research question is not the type of
question that its answer can be determined through an interview;
the answer is determined through surveying a large number of
participants and finding how the perceptions among these
participants have changed, if at all, from the traditional
perceptions. The survey gave a first-hand account of peoples
current thoughts and insights of spinsterhood. However, the
limitations are that the survey was non-random because it was
distributed among participants who either study or work in AUC
which should be put into consideration that it is should not be
considered representative of the Egyptian society. Yet, this nonrandom sample approach allowed for better understanding and in
depth account of the situation. My survey was taken by 66 female
and 46 male participants. Through the survey I was able to collect
information such as, if there are still men and women who cling to

gender roles of the past, and if people still believe that fulfillment
is not perceived by a woman unless she gets married and
becomes a mother, and until then she is considered as missing
out the true meaning of life; even if she is successful in other
prospects such as her career and her social life.
There has always been debate on whether the traditional
role of a woman which is being a wife and a mother or being
successful in her career/education is her ideal role in the eyes of
society or not. In Todays Cultural Ideal of Women Tera Benson
states that in the 1950s the ideal role for a woman was to be a
perfect mother, wife, and home maker. However, now in the 21st
century for a woman to be considered as filling her ideal role she
should be having a successful career while raising a welladjusted family. In The Ideal Woman Jennifer Holt states that
the reason behind this traditional role of women in the fifties is
that the idea that men are superior and women are inferior was
highly emphasized through creating stereotypical images of
women in advertisements. However, through the years, women
started to attain higher educational degrees which allowed them
to start asking for equality, and to have the right to be part of the

work force. Thus, the ideal role evolved from being the traditional
role solely to be accompanied with maintaining the career goals
of the modern women. The survey results matched this shift in
gender roles that took place in western countries showing that
similar shift in perceptions / social change has occurred in Egypt.
It was determined that 84% of the female participants and 71% of
the male participants agreed that the ideal role of a woman in
society is being both successful in her career/education and being
a mother. Through these answers I was able to shed the light on
the fact that people are not clinging to gender roles of the past as
they used to when it was thought that a womans main role is
being a mother and doing the house cores. Instead the
participants proved that awareness has increased and the
essentiality of being both a mother and successful in her
career/education is agreed upon. The comments were also able to
reflect this awareness, most of the comments were stating that a
womens main role should be whatever she wants and the most
important thing is that she would end up proud and satisfied with
her life.

Besides the change in gender roles that caused a change in

perceptions there is the change in the concept of fulfillment.
Mustard states that the new trend adopted in western countries is
thinking of a spinster as an independent person who has got
many other aspects in her life to excel in to attain fulfillment, and
that getting married is not the decisive aspect for her to be
considered fulfilled. Therefore, any woman who is successful in
any aspect in her life that she considers important is able to
acquire fulfillment. The results of the second question in the
survey matched this ideology; the question was If a woman is
successful in both her career and in her social life. Yet, she is still
unmarried. How do you perceive her in your mind? 66% of
females and 60% of males agreed that they would perceive her as
fulfilled. Both participants who perceived her as fulfilled and
unfulfilled were able to make the social change in peoples
ideology visible through their comments. Those who perceived
her as fulfilled justified their answer by saying that fulfillment is
achieved through being successful in any aspect in her life.
However, the other participants who answered unfulfilled justified
their answer by saying that at some point no matter how many

accomplishments a woman have achieved in her life if marriage

and raising children is not among them she is missing a crucial
part of life that can never be replaced. Through this justification
the discrimination that takes place against unmarried women can
easily be explained; people tend to have solid beliefs and they
create subsequent thoughts based upon these beliefs such as in
this case people consider marriage and children as the most
valuable things in life thus when a woman stays single she is
automatically perceived as unfulfilled based on their solid belief
that the beauty of being a mother wasnt experienced so she is
then unfulfilled.
The change in the ideal role of women and perceiving
fulfillment in the eyes of society had to have a significant impact
on societys thoughts. Therefore, the results of the third question
which was overall, your thoughts about a spinster are positive,
negative, or neither? 78.3% of the females and 67.6% did not
hold neither positive nor negative thoughts towards a spinster
which was a very positive investigation that people started to let
go of the negative perceptions they hold towards spinsters, and
treat just like any normal person without this distinction. Yet, the

other participants who declared that they have negative thoughts

justified their declaration by saying that this is how we were
taught to perceive her ever since we were young, and I can totally
relate to this. Since I was a little girl my grandmother have always
talked negatively about any female relative who have passed the
expected marriage age and are still single and this is how the idea
was created in my mind. However, when I grew up I started to
realize that I do not have the right to perceive a spinster
negatively or have feelings of shame and pity towards her, and
because my grandmother did not receive the level of education I
have received and was not provided with the amount of freedom I
am provided with she consequently did not think the way I do.
Lastly, the final question was Is marriage essential? the
majority agreed upon the fact that marriage is crucial not only
because the Egyptian society is overly obsessed with following
social patterns but it is because at the end of the day no one
wants to end up alone in their life. No matter how independent a
person is, there comes a point in their life when they come to
realise that they need to share their life with a partner, as
marriage is not only about the social image it creates. Marriage is

about commitment, having children, having a family, staying

together through thick and thin, learning how to compromise,
having someone to pick you up when you are about to fall.
Therefore, the conclusion of this paper is that a minor shift in
the perceptions of a spinster has started to take place among
societies, and specifically in the Egyptian society. This change is
not because people stopped finding marriage as crucial or
because they are more open-minded towards staying single. But,
it is because a change in social norms took place, and because
people are now more aware that staying single can be out of
personal choice or it can can also be because of economic
inadequacy. In The Single Set Nahed Nasser confirmed this
conclusion by stating Egyptian society has, in general, gradually
eased itself into a new acceptance of the social situation.