Families in the gulf region

Over the last five decades, dramatic social changes have disrupted established patterns of family life in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC; Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates). These social changes include urbanization, increases in female education and labor force participation, technology uptake, improved economic status due to oil revenues, an influx of immigrants, globalization, and the advent of new ideological implications concerning social equality, social justice, and protection of the rights of women and children. This chapter provides a discussion of family changes in the GCC in the context of these social changes. From a multidisciplinary perspective, the chapter introduces how the rest of the book tackles issues related to intimate partner relationships, fertility, and parenthood, and how community contexts influence families in the GCC. The chapter provides an overview of the subsequent chapters, which attend to how social changes and family relationships in the GCC are both similar to and different from other areas of the world. The chapters also attend to programs and policies designed to promote the well-being of families in the GCC. The book brings a critical perspective to the emerging challenges facing families in the GCC and opens lines of inquiry among scholars from diverse disciplines.