The second dependent variable will be measured: according to the frequency of the role of the actresses acting the role of 'spinsters' either major, minor role, or both

Data Collection

The unit of analysis for the study is the image/direction of the single women. A content analysis is conducted on the image/direction of single women labeled as 'spinsters' in the movies since the start of the cinema until 2005 in which a selection of non random sampling of movies are chosen based on the purposive sampling from the available movies in the cinema.

19 Thanks to Mr. Maged Habashy, an Egyptian director, for his cooperation that helped me a lot to come up with this list of the representation of single women as spinsters within the Egyptian Cinema.

87 The operational definitions:

Type of Movies:

- Tragedy: any entertaining movie that is related to misfortune, hardships, heartbreaking, grief, sorrow, misery, disputes, revenge, and depression.

- Comedy: any entertaining movie that is related to humor, express amusement, funny, joking, and comedian issues.

- Both: any entertaining movie that contain both tragic and sad scenes combined with laugh and humor

Image/Direction

- Spinster or anas- is the female who has not been known that she is engaged or announced about her among the society for being single, unmarried before even if she has been secretly committed a lawful or unlawful unannounced marriage as well as committing adultery; the representation of anas will be observed through the point of view of the actress playing the role and/or those around her who are suspicious of her and viewing or referring to her as such.

- Image/Direction of spinster- is the direction representing the actress who is acting as spinster through which the single woman were presented in the Egyptian drama or movies can be positive or negative in relation to her appearance, femininity, and behavior.

- The positive Image/direction is the female who is represented as physically attractive or acceptable, showing femininity (decency and politeness), and who acts in a normal way;

therefore, blaming reasons of her onousa on the surroundings rather than on herself as a person.

- The negative Image/direction is the female who is represented as physically ugly, unattractive, unacceptable, showing non femininity (indecency and impoliteness), and who acts in an abnormal idiotic way; therefore, blaming reasons of her onousa on herself as she wants to marry anyone without thinking or using her mind.

- The positive and negative Image/direction will be a combination of both.

- Significant Role- is the role of the actress either acting a major or minor role of being a spinster within the Egyptian movies.

- Major Role- is the role of the actress(es) representing a spinster or spinsters acted by the heroine(s) and/or the main character(s) in the Egyptian movie.

- Minor Role- is the role of the actress(es) representing a spinster or spinsters acted by secondary character(s) or unknown character(s) in the Egyptian movie.

- Both- is the role of actresses representing spinsters acted by both major and minor characters.

4.5.C In-depth Interviews

The researcher conducts nine in-depth interviews with unmarried females in relation to singlehood and how singlehood affects them or not in addition to different reasons lead to it in the Egyptian society. Also, for more clarification of the problem, in-depth interviews are conducted with Egyptian scholars who are experts in their fields related to the issue, such as media specialists, filmmakers, theater directors, critics, religious men, and psychiatrists.

88 4.5.D Field Observations

The first field observation was conducted in one of the Egyptian villages called El Tarana in Menoufia Governorate. Due to the emergency law, the researcher shifted her plan from a coffee shop to a mandara, a huge room in rural houses. The researcher provided the group within the field observation with all attractive means to join and participate in the open discussion about the spinsterhood problem. On the one hand, the family who owns the mandara provides tangerine and tea boiled on fire made out of corn husks through the discussion which shows the hospitality of the rural people, and on the other hand, the researcher provides them, for free, with biscuits, pumpkin seed, chips, chocolates, and other oriental sweets, such as Zenab's Fingers "Sawabea Zeinab" and "Meshabek".

89 Chapter 5: Findings

Findings in this thesis are based on results of the 326 surveys, a content analysis of 54 Egyptian movies, a qualitative analysis of a docudrama tackling the problem, in-depth interviews with 12 experts in the fields of mass communication, religion, psychology and film, and field observations from a rural village in Menoufia governorate.

Findings of the statistical analysis were acquired through using the computer program (SPSS). Tables, charts, and pie charts are used to show results of the findings obtained through either the questionnaire or the content analysis.

5.1 Findings of the Survey

This section is comprised of a descriptive analysis of the answers through using both types of statistics: descriptive statistics (data distribution and summary statistics) and inferential statistics (cross tabulation and chi-square). Tables and charts show frequencies, percentages, and ranks for multiple-choice answers.

5.1.A Participants' opinions about spinsterhood or onousa

To examine the role of culture, religion, and media (especially movies) in stereotyping single, still-unmarried women, it is crucial to start by investigating the opinion of people regarding the single, still-unmarried woman, their definition of the word spinster or anas, and how do they determine her age.

5.1.A.1 Definition of Spinster or Anas

According to question 11, which asks about the participants’ point of view towards the meaning of the word spinster or anas. Table 5.1.A.1 displays the responses of the participants towards defining the word spinster or anas.

91

Table 5.1.A.1 Frequencies (n) and Percentages (%) on Participants' opinion about what the word Spinster or Anas means*

Characteristics n % Ranking

The word Spinster or Anas means a. A Woman past age and not married b. A Woman that train of Marriage left her**

c. Any girl not married after puberty d. A Woman with no marriage opportunities

e. An Ugly Woman either in Appearance or behavior f. A woman with Bad Reputation

g. All the Above

* multiple choice answers are permitted. ** An Egyptian proverb describes and mocks single woman.

From the 326 participants, it is interesting to find that most of participants define the word spinster as 'a woman past age and not married', with 32.5%, and 'a woman that train of Marriage left her', with 29.1%. However, 21.8% of them see it fits more 'a woman with no marriage opportunities'.

5.1.A.2 Opinion about better term for use instead of the word spinster or anas

From the 326 participants to question 12, only 285 persons respond to this question.

The following pie-chart shows the results (figure 5.1.A.2) Figure 5.1.A.2