Email this article 
Hide
Show all
Feminist Perceptions and the Challenges for Women’s Education in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in the 21st Century
Abstract
This article aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion about women’s education. Conflicting discourses, regarding the positions of women as student learners, create an educational challenge that faces the GCC countries in the 21st century. This study explores the prevalent feminist positions in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and presents the findings to the public and to decision makers in KSA. The data is generated in two ways: focus group and a questionnaire. Aside from the information they yield, the results of the focus group interviews were used to develop a questionnaire that was distributed among students from various departments at King Abdelaziz University women’s main campus. The article finally discusses the results of this survey and also explores the debatable concepts of fairness vs. equality in the context of the findings.
Keywords: women, feminism, education, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, feminist perception, pro-Islamic feminism, pro-western feminism
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Abouchakra, R., Nabih, M.,Moujaes, C.N. ,& Samman, H.( 2008, March). How to succeed at education reform: the case for Saudi Arabia and the broader GCC region. Web retrieved 25 October 2013from: http://www.booz.com/global/home/what-we-think/reports-white-papers/article-display/succeed-education-reform-case-saudi.
Acker, S. (1987). Feminist theory and the study of gender and education. International Review of Education, 33 (4): 419- 437.
Afkhami, M. (1995). Faith and Freedom: Women's Human Rights in the Muslim World. New York: Syracuse UP.
Allam, Abeer (2011, April 25). Saudi education reforms face resistance. Web retrieved in 25 October 2013 from: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/07607fb0-6f5d-11e0-952c-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2j7DIYmpx
Saudi Arabia speeds up education reform (2009, April 15) Retrieved in 25 October 2013 from: http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/saudi-arabia/saudi-arabia-speeds-up-education-reform-1.64121
AlMunajjed, M. (1997). Women in Saudi Arabia Today. London: Macmillan.
Arnot, M. (2007). Education Feminism, Gender Equality and School Reform in Late Twentieth Century England. International Studies in Educational Inequality, Theory and Policy, 3: 207-226.
Baki, R. (2004, June). Gender-segregated education in Saudi Arabia: its impact on social norms and the Saudi labor market. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 12(28): 1-15. Web retrieved 10 April 2013
Bernard-Powers, J. (2011). The 'Girl Question' in Education: Vocational Education for Young Women in the Progressive Era. London: Routledge
Elyas, T. & Picard, M.Y. (2013). Critiquing of higher education policy in Saudi Arabia: towards a new neoliberalism. Education, Business and Society: Cotemporary Middle Eastern Issues, 6(1): 31-41.
Elyas, T. & Picard, M. (2012). Teaching and moral tradition in Saudi Arabia: a paradigm of struggle or pathway towards Globalization?” Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2012; 47:1083-1086.
Emery J. & Naseem A. (2010). Scientism and Education: Empirical Research and Neoliberal Ideology. New York: Springer. Web retrieved on 26 October from: http://books.google.com.sa/books?id=f5gveeSYcNQC&pg=PA11&dQ=deductive+empirical+research+in+in+education&source=bl&ots=AlkCCNnK_m&sig=c9y3wtOTzrG43Lvbp2igf6JHCmc&hl=en&sa=Xei=8KxwUpuZEuyp0AW81YBg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=deductive%20empirical%20research20%in%20education&f=false
Foucault, M. (1972). The Archeology of Knowledge. (A. M. Sheridan Smith, Trans.). London: Routledge.
Gardiner, J.K. (2002). Introduction. In Gardiner, J. K. (Ed.), Masculinity studies and Feminist Theory (pp. 1 -30). New York: Columbia UP
Goldstein, E.B. (2010). Sensation and Perception. USA: Wadsworth.
Hamdan, A. (2005). Women and education in Saudi Arabia: Challenges and achievements. International Education Journal, 6(1): 42-64. Web retrieved 10 April 2013.
Hemmings, C. 2001. Why Stories Matter: The Political Grammar of Feminist Theory. Durham NC: Duke UP.
Hewitt, N. (2010). Introduction. In: Hewitt, N. (Ed.), No Permanent Waves: Recasting Histories of U.S. Feminism. 1-14. New Jersey: Rutgers UP.
Kumra, S., Manfredi, S. & Vickers, L. (2012) Managing Equality and Diversity: Theory and Practice. Oxford: Oxford UP.
Kesler, J. (2010). Gender segregating public schools does not work. http://thehathorlegacy.com Web retrieved 9 April 2013.
McCormick, K., Waller, G., & Flower, L. (1987). Reading Texts: Reading, Responding, Writing. Boston: D. C. Heath & Company Publishers.
Ministry of Higher Education. (2010).Women in Higher education: Saudi initiatives & achievements. Saudi Arabia: Riyadh. Web retrieved 24 July 2013. From: http://www.mohe.gov.sa/
Nolan, L.E. (2012, March 16). Keeping the kingdom: the politics of higher education reform in Saudi Arabia. A paper presented at the annual meeting of the international Studies Association Annual Conference “Global Governance: Political Authority in Transition. Web retrieved 16 October 2103 from: http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p500893_index.html
Rawls, J. (1971). A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard UP.
Roche, S. (2013). Equity and equality in education. International Review of Education, 58(1): 1-4. Web 30 April 2013.
Sen, G. & Grown, C. (1987). Development, Crises and Alternative Visions: Third World Women's Perspectives. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Shah, S.K., Corley, K.G. (2006). Building a better theory by bridging the quantative-qualitative divide. Journal of Management Studies 43 (8): 1821-1835
Slaughter, A. M. (July-August 2012) Why women still can’t have it all. The Atlantic. Web retrieved 3 April 2013 from: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-cant-have-it-all/309020/
Stanberry K. (March 2012). Single-sex education: the pros and cons. Web retrieved 25 April 2013 from: http://www.greatschools.org/find-a-school/defining-your-ideal/1139-single-sex-education-the-pros-and-cons.gs?
Stewart, D.W., Shamdasani, P.N. & Rook, D. (2006). Focus Groups, Theory and Practice, London: sage publications.
Wilcox, B.W. & Kovner, K. K. (2013). Introduction. In B.W. Wilcox, B.W., Kl. K. Kovner (Eds.), Gender and Parenthood: Biological and Social Scientific Perspectives, 1-20. New York: Columbia UP.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
2010-2023 (CC-BY) Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD.
Advances in Language and Literary Studies
You may require to add the 'aiac.org.au' domain to your e-mail 'safe list’ If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox'. Otherwise, you may check your 'Spam mail' or 'junk mail' folders.