FEMALE ROLE CHANGE AND MALE-RESPONSE IN THE POST-NOMADIC URBAN-ENVIRONMENT - THE CASE OF THE ISRAELI-NEGEV-BEDOUIN

Resettlement and development planning in the Israeli Negev Bedouin com munity has brought on a variety of social changes, including altered g ender roles and expectations. Social planners have viewed development in the women's realm as crucial to community development as a whole. T hus,Bedouin women are now more educated than ever before, and have hig her expectations in the economic and social realms which extend well b eyond the traditional domestic duties held by their foremothers. And y et, male Bedouin response to such role transformation has been at best , unyielding. It is therefore contended that while female role changes are now in their nascent stage, the patriarchal natural of Bedouin so ciety is not likely to diminish any time soon. Bedouin males' degree o f receptivity to new female roles will, for the near term at least, re main a key factor in Bedouin women's ability to alter previous gener-b ased social patterns.