As in many developing countries, women in Egypt play a key role in the agricultural sector. This has not been adequately reflected, however, in the official statistics on services, employment, and income, nor has there been a fair appreciation of the socioeconomic constraints women encounter in participating in the development process. In response, this fully annotated bibliography represents diverse studies—including books, journal articles, technical reports, and dissertations—that document the role and status of rural Egyptian women.

The authors' extensive coverage of the literature in both Arabic and English, as well as the thematic organization of the material, provides a valuable reference for students, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers interested not only in Egypt, but also in the problems of rural women in developing countries in general.

Mohamed A. Faris is professor of plant science at the Macdonald Campus of McGill University. He is director of the Canada-Egypt-McGill Agricultural Response Program (CEMARP). Mahmood Hasan Khan is professor of economics at Simon Fraser University. They coedited Sustainable Agriculture in Egypt (Rienner 1993).