Women's Higher Education, and Women's Employment in Saudi Arabia
Alyamani, Abdulrahman Abdullah
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/69011
Description
Title
Women's Higher Education, and Women's Employment in Saudi Arabia
Author(s)
Alyamani, Abdulrahman Abdullah
Issue Date
1985
Department of Study
Education
Discipline
Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Education, Higher
Abstract
This research argues that increased women's employment is an imperative for Saudi Arabia because of many changes that are occurring in almost all modern sectors of that society. But the model of women's employment in many modern societies is perceived as repugnant to Islamic norms of sexual modesty. The problem is further complicated by the restrictive definition of modesty. The definition is an exaggeration of Islamic modesty and reduces women's public participation in general and women's employment in particular. This research attempts to answer the question: How could Saudi Arabia initiate a desirable model of women's employment which could provide increased employment for women and at the same time maintain the Islamic norm of modesty?
It was hypothesized that women's higher education is a potential institution to intitiate that model, but the "liberal" program of societal development and the "conservative" women's position negatively impact the full development of that model. In general, the hypotheses were "accepted." Specifically, it was found that two aspects of women's position--the public opinion about women's public participation and the societal arrangement for that participation--do have negative impact on women's employment. The research method is "holistic" qualitative, utilizing normative (i.e., ideal-Islamic) imperatives as well as positive empirical analysis. Both the normative imperatives and the empirical analysis were used to operationally define "a desirable model of women's employment." On this model an operational definition of "an effective model of women's higher education" was based. Those two models as well as a brief normative definition of development were used to evaluate the contributions of women's position, women's higher education, and the program of societal development.
The concept of maslahah (public interest) from the classical Islamic methodology was employed to analyze the operative definition of sexual modesty and to recommend a few reforms. Such measures will reform public opinion about women's public participation, and the societal arrangements for this participation. Both are prerequisites for increased women's employment.
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