Paraphrasing 3000 words

All women around the world in some stage of their life career need to break the "glass ceiling" to

accomplish their career goals. The ceiling is located above the lowest middle-level management positions

and prevents women from attaining higher management positions (Glass Ceiling Commission 1995).

Equality in the workplace has resulted in equal opportunities been presented to the male and female gender.

Equity programs, as well as rising education levels among the female gender, have led to changes in career

paths for women. Additionally, work-life balance policies presented to women in organizations have

enhanced equality. However, despite the considerable advancements and considerations in gender equality at

the workplace, the glass ceiling remains to be a threat to a career for ethnic minorities and especially Saudi

Arabian women. The glass ceiling acts as a barrier that prohibits black women from advancing to top

managerial positions in the organizations in the United States. The barrier presents gender differences and

inequalities that increase throughout a black woman’s career. Promotions are limited in male-dominated

organizations, as well as female characteristics been used to justify the glass ceiling effect. The essay will

discuss the threats imposed by the glass ceiling on Saudi women’s career development through close analysis

from different theories such as feminism theory, and critical race theory.

Saudi:

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has experienced a rapid and impressive growth of women participating

in all levels of education in recent years. However, there are many areas of the educational sector

where gender segregation is still prevalent especially in relation to access to the best educators and

resources (Smith & Abouammah, 2013). In the last 19 years, Saudi Arabia has invested a significant

amount of money in its educational sector and has raised the overall number of faculty members, both

men and women, by 175%. According to Jamjoom and Kelly (2013),

In 2011, women gained access to political power. King Abdullah announced that women would be

allowed to vote, as well as run for elections, in the 2015 municipal elections (Alkayed, 2015). Saudi

women were allowed to join the Shura Council, “the traditionally all men body which drafts laws,

debates major issues, and provides advice to the king” (Hamdan, 2013, para.1). After joining the

Shura Council in 2013, women then became appointed as deputy chairpersons of three committees

within the Shura Council in the same year. All of these actions have helped to open doors to

managerial and leadership positions within many other organizations in Saudi Arabia (Alkayed,

2015).

However, despite the new increased role of women in leadership positions in Saudi Arabia, they still

faced difficulties compared to their male counterparts due to personal, institutional, and cultural

challenges which can affect their effectiveness as leaders. Although Saudi women had high

qualifications, job experience, and a readiness to take leadership positions in organizations, the

structural and cultural barriers that exist in Saudi Arabia need to be addressed before the new

policies that the government put in place to empower women could move forward (Abu Al-Ola,

2014). For example, in Saudi Arabian universities, women typically do not have the decision-

making power and are currently not part of the planning process. Saudi women also face a lack of

resources and lack of empowerment in the work world as well (AlAhmadi, 2011)

In Saudi Arabia, women appear to be seeking leadership roles in higher education and then hitting

glass ceilings that limit their upward mobility.

The glass ceiling in Saudi higher education experienced by Saudi women may be explained by

various influences or barriers such as cultural, social segregation (Jamjoom & Kelly, 2013),

discrimination (Elamin & Omair, 2010), institutional barriers (Al-Kayed, 2015), and personal

factors (Al-Ghamdi, 2013). These things are all important to study because many Saudi women

appear to be facing glass ceilings when attempting to obtain leadership positions in 15 higher

education and even when women secure senior university positions, they often do not have the same

power and authority that their male colleagues have.

Cultural aspect

Saudi Arabia is a socially and religiously conservative country [24]. Its has a high cultural

homogeneity based on tribal and Islamic affiliations and therefore has a unique and complex culture.

Hence it is difficult to differentiate between Islamic principles and Arabic customs [2]. Some customs,

such as the belief that women should not drive cars or practise Law or Engineering are not from

Islamic law but have become entrenched in the culture [16]. Women’s function in wider society is

limited and Saudi Arabia has one of the lowest participation of women in the workplace, particularly

from graduates.

Islam and Saudi Arabia are closely intertwined and many scholars have commented on the close-

knit relationship. Denman and Hilal (2011), for example, explained that “the Islamic religion is

considered as much a part of the Saudi identity as the country’s longstanding history as part of the

greater Arab Peninsula” (p. 304). Moreover, Ochsenwald (1981) wrote: "In Saudi Arabia from its

inception Islam has been the omnipresent and dominant factor in public life" (p. 274). Saudi Arabia

is considered as one of the most conservative and orthodox Muslim societies in the world. In fact,

Saudi Arabia is the only Arab theocratic country where Islam is greatly intertwined with the

government

Feminist Theory

Feminism is a belief in social, economic as well as political equality of the two genders [17]. It

recognises and criticises male supremacy while making efforts to change it.

Feminists generally fight for gender equality “and argue that women should have an equal share in

society’s opportunities” as well as other resources that are scarce [17-21].

The principal relevance of the feminist theory is to define and analyse the critical possibilities affiliated

to gender inequality [31]. Feminism asserts that the position of the woman in society is determined by

institutional and social factors, in addition, there is ample evidence demonstrating that women have

been continuously treated as inferior citizens [13]. As a mode of analysis, feminism is grounded in the

link between the social institutions which influence the daily life of individuals and in a desire for

social change. As a theory, feminism is both scientific and political. According to reference [13],

feminist scholars are identified by their political interest in protesting against women’s oppression and

view their scholarly work as a contribution to comprehensive understanding of why and how

liberation of women should be achieved.

In the recent past, the government has developed campaigns against gender segregation with the

major stakeholders endeavouring to ensure change in the education processes within the Saudi

political system and promoting equality by institutionalising more female learning institutions to

enhance the number of Saudi women reaching higher education [23]. Importantly, the scrutiny on

women’s rights to bring about gender equality, particularly in education and leadership, defines the

value- 122 American Journal of Educational Research free direction within the political systems, not

only in Saudi Arabia, but also in global political systems [26]. The processes involved in mitigating this

sexual objectification and stereotyping directed against women in Saudi society with regard to

education achievement include education equity by opening more institutions of higher learning for

women, mainstreaming the school curricula for girls’ institutions of learning and incorporating

subjects and career fields that do not discriminate against the interaction between the males and

females in this society [16].

“Providing Equal Opportunities.” According to Al Saud (n.d.), Our economy will provide

opportunities for everyone – men and women, young and old, so they may contribute to the best of

their abilities. We will place a renewed emphasis on 14 lifelong training, and we will seek to make

the most of the potential of our workforce by encouraging a culture of high performance. These

efforts will be coordinated by the recently established Job Creation and Anti-Unemployment

Commission… Saudi women are yet another great asset. With over 50 percent of our university

graduates being female, we will continue to develop their talents, invest in their productive

capabilities and enable them to strengthen their future and contribute to the development of our

society and economy. (Al-Saud, n,d, p.37) As seen in this quote, there is support for support for

women in relation to completing the Saudi 2030 vision.

Insert statistics of working men and women ratio.

As of 2016, there were 38 universities in Saudi Arabia, with 28 being public and 10 private. There

were also 20 private colleges and four “other” higher educational institutions 20 (Ministry of

Education, 2016). Within these institutions, there were 4,462-degree programs’. These degree

programs were divided by gender, with 31% of the degree programs offered only to men, 18.6%

were for women only, and 50.4% of the degree programs are provided to both men and women

(Ministry of Education, 2015a). Although the number of private universities was high, 82.3% of

degree programs were provided in public universities, while only eight percent were provided by

private universities and 9.7% were provided by other institutions (Ministry of Education, 2015a).

Eight universities were restricted solely to male enrollment and employment, five were restricted to

female enrollment and employment, and the remaining institutions had both genders as employees

and students (Ministry of Education, 2015a). One of the five women’s institutions, Princess Nora

University, was “founded in 2007, was the world’s largest university for women with an enrollment

of over 52,000 undergraduate and graduate students” (Saudi Embassy, 2016, para.30). However,

although most of the universities employ both men and women, nearly all of the presidents were

men. The only time that there were female university presidents was when the university was

women-only (Ministry of Education, 2015a). system.

In higher education, the situation is not much better. Although the percentage of women university

presidents in the United States has increased from 23% in 2006 to 26% in 2011 (American Council

on Education, 2012), the 26% still seems to be small in comparison to the percentage of women in

the labor force. In Europe, women make up 10% of leadership positions in organizations (European

Commission, 2005, cited in Ryan, Haslam, & Kulich, 2010). The scenario for Saudi women is no

better than for women around the world, since only 6.1% out of the total number of professional

Saudi women in the workforce are in administration, including leadership positions (Ministry of

Economy and Planning, 2010).

Example of workplace experiences and link to feminism

In Arab societies, regardless of women’s positions in the public and private sectors, women are

considered inferior and subordinates to men, even if he may have fewer qualifications (Hamdan,

2005). This scenario is strongly replicated in Saudi Arabian leadership positions, and the decision-

making roles are predominantly male. Saudi men are in charge of running all sectors in the country,

regardless of their qualifications; even though qualified, educated women are available, as well. The

highest leadership position a Saudi women can reach, especially in higher education, is serving as a

deputy to her male counterparts. This form of glass ceiling created by the cultural perception of

women’s roles as assistants to men is 33 constraining their advancement and professional growth.

Until this glass ceiling is unveiled, the status quo for Saudi women will remain the same

(AlMunajjed, 1997, 2010; Hamdan, 2005).

Since women hold less status than men in society and the workplace, many organization and

institutions construct policies and culture that perpetuate this status for women (Eagly, 1987;

Sabattini & Crosby, 2009). Such institutional policies and culture force female leaders to either

speak out or to be passive. Meanwhile, the voices of these women challenge the traditional

institutional culture imposed upon them. And, either option, being silenced or heard, still could

harm these female leaders (Chan, 2010). Sabattini and Crosby (2009) suggested that 46

organizations and institutions should implement flexible work-life and family-friendly policies to

decrease the gender gap in leadership positions. They proposed: utilizing technologies, career

flexibility, work-life programs, leadership support, managers’ and employees’ training,

implementing governmental initiatives, and changing the culture to be more inclusive and

supportive (Sabattini & Crosby, 2009)

conclusion:

In Saudi Arabia, the situation for women seeking leadership opportunities is similar to women

worldwide, but perhaps even more challenging due to religious and cultural norms. This 59 chapter

also provided an overview of Saudi Arabia’s culture, primary and higher education, and work

opportunities.

Methodology :

The previous chapter discussed prevalent literature on the subject of work-life balance and MCT.

This chapter will discuss how the research will be conducted in order to answer the questions set

out at the beginning of this dissertation. This chapter will firstly concentrate, in Section 3.2, on the

research philosophy, discussing the different ontologies and epistemologies available and which is

best suited for this research. Secondly, in Section 3.3, the most appropriate data collection technique

will be chosen based on the ontology and epistemology selected. Following that, the sources of data

will be explained and how they were selected for this research in Section 3.4. Section 3.5 will

evaluate the ethical issues that this research poses. Finally, the data analysis tool will be discussed,

demonstrating its benefits in Section 3.6

interpretivist paradigm is originally rooted in the fact that methods used to understanding

knowledge related to human and social sciences cannot be the same as its usage in physical sciences

because human interprets their world and then acts based on such interpretation while the world

does not (Hammersley, 2013, p. 26). Consequently, interpretivists adapt a relativist ontology in

which a single phenomenon may have multiple interpretations rather than a truth that can be

determined by a process of measurement. Virtually, with interpretivism perspective, researchers

tend to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon and its complexity in its unique context

instead of trying to generalise the base of understanding for the whole population (Creswell, 2007).

In the same way, Hammersley (2013) emphasises that since multiple interpretation is developed

among humans’ relationship, interpretivist researchers should try to understand “the diverse ways of

seeing and experiencing the world through different contexts and cultures” and try to avoid the bias

in studying the events and people with their own interpretations. From this aspect, it is highlighted

some advantages of this paradigm in coming discussion. The first advantage is that with the

diversifying views to look into phenomena, interpretivist researchers can not only describe objects,

human or events, but also deeply understand them in social context. In addition, researchers also

can conduct these types of research in natural setting via utilising key methodologies as grounded

theory, 4 ethnography, case study or life history to gain the insider’s insights of research’s objects

(Tuli, 2010) to provide with more authentic information related to the object of research. Second, as

leveraging key method of interactive interview which “allows researcher to investigate and prompt

things that we cannot observe, researchers can probe an interviewee’s thoughts, values, prejudices,

perceptions, views, feelings and perspectives” (Wellington & Szczerbinski, 2007). Thus, valuable

data collected will provide researchers with better insights for further action later. Despite of above

key strengths, this paradigm also remains some disadvantages. One of these limitations is that the

intepretivists aim to gain the deeper understanding and knowledge of phenomena within its

complexity of the context rather than generalise these results to other people and other contexts

(Cohen, Manion & Marison, 2011), hence it tends to leave out a gap in verifying validity and

usefulness of research outcomes with using scientific procedures. The second criticism of

interpretivism is that its ontological view tends to be subjective rather than objective (Mack, 2010).

For this reason, research outcomes are unquestionally affected by the researcher’s own

interpretation, own belief system, ways of thinking or cultural preference which causes to many

bias. The last limitation of interpretivism is about the lack of addressing the political and ideological

impact on knowledge and social reality. This paradigm targets to understanding of current

phenomena rather than focusing the problems related to empowerment of individuals and societies.

Mack (2010) refers that this theoretical perspective implicitly neglects the issues of power and

agency, which are features of our society. Interestingly, this specific limitation has potentially led to

the role of critical inquiry in further enhancing the practicability of research