Important variables are the local gender philosophy and ideology; class, linked to modernization; and different labor demands in urban and rural life.

Popular gender ideology, supported (but not created) by Islam, endows men with bodily and moral strength and leadership qualities and women with frailty, empathy, and a natural inclination toward nurturing, care of husband, children, and house. In traditional families girls acquire appropriate skills as apprentice helpers to women in their father's or in-laws' house. D…