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Department of Sociology

Rania Salem

Rania Salem, a woman with curly brown hair and brown eyes wearing a brown blazer and blue shirt
Associate Professor
Email
rania.salem@utoronto.ca
Telephone number
(416) 208-4757
Building HL 454

Professor Salem’s teaching and research interests lie at the intersection of the sociology of families, gender studies, economic sociology, international development, social demography, and Middle East studies. She has studied the implications of matrimonial expenditures in Egypt for marriage timing, women’s power within marriage, and secret marriages. She has also collaborated on projects that investigate how experiences of intimate partner violence influence the performance of different types of work among Egyptian women, the impact of various types of women’s work on their agency in Egypt, and kin influences on young women’s transitions into the labor force in Qatar. Her current project uses qualitative interviews with dual-earning couples in Egypt to explore how seemingly similar monies are understood and treated differently based on the gender of the earner. Salem’s research has been funded by the International Development Research Center, the Economic Research Forum, and the Qatar National Research Fund, and her research has been published in Journal of Family Issues, Demographic Research, Gender, Work & Organization, and Qualitative Sociology, among others.

Education

Ph.D., Princeton University

Teaching Interests

  • Sociology of Families
  • Family and Gender in the Middle East
  • Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods

Research Interests

  • Women and gender in the contemporary Middle East
  • Family and marriage in the contemporary Middle East
  • Economic Sociology of households, labor markets, and economic development

Publications

  • Salem, Rania and Sarah Shah. 2019.  “Economic Rationales for Kin Marriage:  Assessing the Evidence Using Egyptian Data.” Demographic Research 41(19): 545-578.  DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2019.41.19 
  • Salem, Rania, and Kathryn M. Yount.  2019. “Structural Accommodations of Classic Patriarchy:  Women and Workplace Gender Segregation in Qatar."  Gender, Work, and Organization 26(4): 501-519.  DOI:  10.1111/gwao12361
  • Salem, Rania.  2018.  “Matrimonial Transactions and the Enactment of Class and Gender Difference Among Egyptian Youth." Qualitative Sociology 41(3): 399-421. DOI:  10.1007/s11133-018-9393-z
  • Salem, Rania.  2018.  “Matrimonial Expenditures and Egyptian Women’s Power within Marriage.”  Journal of Family Issues 39(9):  2615-2638.  DOI:  10.1177/0192513X18755197     
  • Salem, Rania, Yuk Fai Cheong, and Kathryn M. Yount. 2018. “Is Women’s Work a Pathway to their Agency in Rural Minya, Egypt?” Social Indicators Research 136(2): 807-831. DOI:  10.1007/s11205-017-1573-9  
  • Salem, Rania.  2016. “The Gendered Effects of Labour Market Experiences on Marriage Timing in Egypt.”  Demographic Research 35(11): 283-314.  DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2016.35.11