International law and women’s participation in the workforce : a Saudi perspective

In Saudi Arabia, women suffer from gender inequality due to a combination of multiple factors. These include the misunderstanding and misinterpretation on religious principles, discriminatory cultural traditions, discriminatory laws, and social issues, as well as history. The Islamic teachings are misapplied to favour men over women. With the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia having a discriminatory culture towards women, it is not surprising to note that the country is lagging behind both the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait in terms of the provision of women’s rights. Both the UAE and Kuwait perform better than the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in terms of education for the girl child, female labour force participation, participation of women in decision-making process, as well as based on legal provisions relating to the rights of women and gender equality. In legal terms, it would appear that the laws that Saudi Arabia uses to govern gender relations are not compatible with international law. Going forward, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia needs to invest in the education of the girl child, incorporate women into the decision-making processes, and eradicate laws that prohibit women from joining professions that are traditionally dominated by men. The leadership of the Kingdom should work collaboratively with the other stakeholders of the Saudi society to raise the status of women by encouraging customs, cultural norms, and religious beliefs that uphold the woman as an individual deserving equal rights as men. With this understanding, the current thesis presents an analysis of the plight of working women in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The thesis also offers recommendations on how the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can improve the status of working women in line with the international law and uphold international conventions and treaties

A Study on the Role of Universities in Saudi Arabia in Empowering Women Educationally

Saudi Arabia is a fantastic example of the blending of culture and religion. This study will look at the ideological underpinnings, historical background, and current status of Saudi Arabia's government policies on women's education. In addition, the paper will discuss how these policies have changed over time. This research looks at how religious and cultural norms in Saudi Arabia have influenced women's access to university education. It emphasizes the golden age of higher education for women. It exemplifies the significance of education, and more specifically higher education, in fulfilling a variety of roles in the career development of Saudi women while maintaining gender norms, social norms, and moral values. In order to better understand how Saudi Arabian women and society interact with their level of education, this paper will conduct a literature review. A range of aspects, such as Islamic thought in Saudi society, education and the status of women in Saudi society, and a contrast between the Qur'an and Saudi society, will be taken into consideration during this investigation. This paper will also go over Saudi women's educational accomplishments and the role of universities in Saudi Arabia in maintaining their decorum in all sphere of life and empowering them

An Exploration of Saudi Women’s Experiences and Perceptions Towards Participation in Physical Activity and Sports in the United States

A significant proportion of Saudi women are currently living in different Western countries, including the United States of America. Physical activity and sports participation play a significant role in maintaining health and well-being for all individuals. Understanding their physical activity experiences and perceptions regarding participation in sports activity during their stay in the United States is important. This study aimed to understand if the length of residence in the United States and/or acculturation to the U.S. environment could significantly change Saudi women\u27s patterns, attitudes, and behaviors towards sports and fitness activities. This qualitative study was carried out to explore and describe their physical activity and sports participation during their transition time in the U.S. A sample of 13 Saudi women (ages between 22 to 51 years old) living in the United States agreed to participate in the study. The study was sampled from different cities in the United States to reduce research bias. All the participants had lived in the United States for at least 3 years. The participants shared their experiences and the meaning of those experiences through in-depth, semi-structured interviews that varied from 45 to 60 minutes depending on the participant’s willingness and time. All of the participants signed an informed consent letter to be tape-recorded with their permission. Results indicated that factors such as the sociocultural and environmental factors of the U.S. during their stay in the United States have shaped their perception of and behavior regarding physical activity; thus, they were more likely to report a significant increase in value on physical activity due to cultural influence. Recommendations for future research were also suggested in this study

Family Relations and Reproductive Health through Early Marriage for University Girls: A Comparative Study of Egyptian and Saudi Society

This study examined the association between family relations and reproductive health, and showed the importance of family relations and some socio-economic characteristics in their contribution to improve reproductive health, which helps married girls at an early age to practice their life roles efficiently. Survey data drawn from the 400 girls (N = 200 in Egypt & 200 in Saudi Arabia). The measures of study were demographic data form for girls, family relations questionnaire and reproductive health questionnaire. Results indicated that there were positive correlation between family relations and reproductive health in Egypt & Saudi Arabia. The structure of family relations and reproductive health related to study type (practical and theoretical) revealed that there were no differences between girls in each of family relations and reproductive health in Egypt & Saudi Arabia. The structure of family relations and reproductive health related to region (Egypt & Saudi Arabia) revealed that there were differences between girls in reproductive health for the benefit of Saudi girls. The linear model analyses revealed that in Egypt the independent variables (relation with children, husband's education, number of family members, age when marriage and relation with neighbors) were able to explain (73.4%) of changes in degree of reproductive health, but in Saudi Arabia (husband's education, relation with children, current age, relation with wife's family and family relations) were able to explain (27.1%) of changes in degree of reproductive health. Key Words: early marriage, family health, family relations, reproductive health

A Proposal for Activating the Saudi Women\u27s Participation in Sports Activities and Events

The present research aims to identify the reality of the Saudi woman’s participation in sports activities and events as well as the relevant obstacles, suggest the mechanisms that activate woman’s participation in sports and present a proposal that activates this participation. To achieve the research objectives, the author adopted the descriptive analytical method and a questionnaire was adopted as a tool. The results showed that woman’s participation in sports activities and events was poor. Moreover, the percentage of the reality was low rated (55.6%). Furthermore, the percentage of the obstacles was high rated (75.7%). All suggestions were of high agreement. The research recommends renewing, developing and diversifying sports activities to keep pace with the continuous changes and developments, promoting the quality of the goals and content of sports activities and developing them according to the desires and needs of the different age groups (i.e. children, teenagers and the elderly)

Education Research Gender, Education and Development - A Partially Annotated and Selective Bibliography

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Exploring the impact of digital technology on women’s employment in Saudi Arabia

Digital technology is revolutionising employment, creating new job opportunities while disrupting traditional occupations. Few studies, however, have examined the impact of technology on women’s employment in developing countries. There is a scarcity of literature on employment opportunities arising from the digitalization of economies for women in Arab countries, especially in Saudi Arabia, from the leadership perspective. Hence, the aim of this study is to focus on exploring the impact of digital technologies on the employment opportunities in digital technologies for women of Saudi Arabia, where the unique political, social and economic characteristics of the state compound may contribute to employment opportunities and barriers against the successful participation of Saudi women in the labour market. This study explores the perspectives of leaders working in the government, businesses and the academic institutions about the employment opportunities created by digital technologies in the Saudi labour market for women.This study has adopted a methodology based on the structuration theory to explore the complexity involved in the subject matter which warranted the selection of participants from three key social structures: government, businesses and academic institutions and the results of semi-structured interviews with 40 participants (13-14 participants from each group) guided the researcher to derive important findings presented in this study. The afore-mentioned three groups were selected based on their overwhelming role in shaping and implementing the digital technologies in the emerging Saudi economy. Additionally, participants at leadership positions from the respective groups including both men and women were included as participants in this study, so that an in-depth insight into employment opportunities for Saudi women could be gained to highlight not only the employment opportunities but also the potential barriers in the ways of Saudi women in exploiting the employment opportunities if they do exist as a result of digitalization of Saudi economy. Importantly, leaderships from the included three groups included in this study are supposed to decide whether Saudi women need to be integrated in the labour market, which justifies the selection of participants occupying the leadership positions in business, academia and government and involved in digitalization of Saudi society and economy were included in this study. Thematic analysis was adopted to analyse the qualitative data, while the interpretation of data was done using the theoretical insights from the structuration theory.Based on the data presented in this study, the social structures of the Saudi society were theorized to play an important role in enhancing or hindering the Saudi women’s participation in the labour market created by digital technologies. Participants believed that there are employment opportunities for Saudi women in different areas of digital technologies such as graphics, entrepreneurships, online businesses, e-marketing, robotics and artificial intelligence. It was found that Saudi government has introduced several affirmative action programmes for women in collaboration with academic institutions and businesses for training and educating Saudi women in digital technologies. This study found evidence supporting the widespread use of social media as a marketing tool for home-based businesses, which could enable employment indigital technologies. The academic institutions in collaboration with businesses were found to be engaged in training women in digital technologies at vocational level, so that participation of Saudi women in digital technologies-assisted labour market could be made successful. The result showed some of the socio-cultural and structural levels barriers for a successful participation of Saudi women in the digital technologies-mediatedlabour market in Saudi Arabia. Among other obstacles that were identified involved the inadequacy of the educational curriculum for girls, particularly in science and engineering and technology-related disciplines. The finding of this study also revealed that career options were limited; family and community pressures and stereotypical attitude towards Saudi women’s employment in digital technologies. The lack of separate working environment, childcare facilities at organizations could limit participation of Saudi women in the labour market created by digital technologies. Moreover, the lack of transport facilities for female workers were identified to be some other barriers.This study has implications for governmental bodies endeavouring to foster the equal employment, education and training opportunities for Saudi women. The outcomes of this study could inform government of the potential socio-cultural and structural issues which could prevent the successful participation of Saudi women in the national economy and society productively. The results of study contributed to the practice by presenting the Women-Employment in Digital Technologies Promoting Structuration (WEDTPS) theory which was informed by the findings of this study.The data from this study did not show the views of women aspiring to participate in the labour market generated by digital technologies, which may provide some additional insight into the women’s positions on the utility of current training and skills programs arranged by social structures in terms of increasing the employment opportunities for women. This study does not specify or focus on particular type(s) of digital technologies; variations in terms of implementation and emphasis of industries on different digital technologies may affect the employment opportunities for Saudi women in different ways. This may limit the generalizability of outcomes of this study to a particular digital technology

An Exploration of Saudi Women’s Experiences and Perceptions Towards Participation in Physical Activity and Sports in the United States

A significant proportion of Saudi women are currently living in different Western countries, including the United States of America. Physical activity and sports participation play a significant role in maintaining health and well-being for all individuals. Understanding their physical activity experiences and perceptions regarding participation in sports activity during their stay in the United States is important. This study aimed to understand if the length of residence in the United States and/or acculturation to the U.S. environment could significantly change Saudi women\u27s patterns, attitudes, and behaviors towards sports and fitness activities. This qualitative study was carried out to explore and describe their physical activity and sports participation during their transition time in the U.S. A sample of 13 Saudi women (ages between 22 to 51 years old) living in the United States agreed to participate in the study. The study was sampled from different cities in the United States to reduce research bias. All the participants had lived in the United States for at least 3 years. The participants shared their experiences and the meaning of those experiences through in-depth, semi-structured interviews that varied from 45 to 60 minutes depending on the participant’s willingness and time. All of the participants signed an informed consent letter to be tape-recorded with their permission. Results indicated that factors such as the sociocultural and environmental factors of the U.S. during their stay in the United States have shaped their perception of and behavior regarding physical activity; thus, they were more likely to report a significant increase in value on physical activity due to cultural influence. Recommendations for future research were also suggested in this study

Perceptions, Beliefs, and Behaviors Toward Breast Cancer Screening of Filipino Women in Saudi Arabia

Despite the existence of breast cancer screening that could promote early diagnosis and survival of breast cancer, high mortality rates of breast cancer persist among Filipino women. The purpose of the qualitative study was to describe the perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors of Filipino women working as Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in Saudi Arabia. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 20 Filipino women between the ages of 40 to 60 years who were recruited voluntarily using purposeful sampling technique. Guided by the structures of health belief model (HBM), the study used an inductive coding technique to elicit common themes from the raw data. The study established that the participants\u27 screening behaviors were influenced by family history of breast cancer, the financial and emotional burden of the disease and its treatment, the benefit of early detection, mobility to participate, culture and language barriers, and the social media. The study also demonstrated that the desire to participate in breast cancer screening is influenced by the participants\u27 perception of susceptibility and perception of severity to breast cancer. The findings of the study could create a positive social change as it may inform the practice of public health providers, influence the drafting of informed policies for comprehensive breast health care, and improve access to preventive health services for Filipino women OFWs. Furthermore, the study could empower Filipino women in their personal health decision making, especially when working in other countries where good health is the working capital and a precondition for survival