Saudi Women: Opportunities and Challenges in Science and Technology

Samira Ibrahim Islam

doi:doi:10.11648/j.edu.20140302.15

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Saudi Women: Opportunities and Challenges in Science and Technology

Samira Ibrahim Islam

Published in Education Journal (Volume 3, Issue 2)

Received: 1 January 2014 Published: 30 January 2014

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Abstract

Women inequality is one of the issues used to criticize the policy in Islamic World. Social inequality fueled the outbreak of the Arab Spring. Ongoing plight across Arab counties had not achieved successful resolution. King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz focused on modernizing the deeply conservative Saudi society, governed by Sharia'a law, through Science diplomacy. Under his leadership, the kingdom's diplomatic relation with the developed countries was empowered allowing transfer of modern scientific education equally for both men and women. This included the overhauled of the existing scientific educational & research institutions, introducing new institutions with state of the art scientific facilities, promoting technology exchange of various research programs with international scientific institutions, establishment of the first mixed-gender post graduate university , involving international faculties &students , scholarship program allowed male & female students to study at developed countries. The gender gap in university registration, Saudi Arabia ranks no. 25th. Saudi women are vigorously pursuing higher education especially in science at a rate greater than Saudi men & Western women. They are becoming pioneers in a variety of fields, most prominently in science and research, assigned in different types of posts which were not allowed, such as work in industry, leading decision making government, private sector posts & Shura cabinet members. They are receiving international awards, granted patents for their ideas and innovations. King Abdulaziz first class Saudi medal awarded to women scientists.

Published in	Education Journal (Volume 3, Issue 2)
DOI	10.11648/j.edu.20140302.15
Page(s)	71-78
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2014. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Saudi Women in Science, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia Empowering Women, Science Education

References

[1]	Islam, S.I. 2004. Saudi Women: Their Role in Science and Education - Presented to NISTADS Conference, New Delhi, India on March 8 -10, 2004
[2]	Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority 2012. Why Saudi Arabia: Excellent Education www.sagia.gov.sa
[3]	Sawahel M 2010. Saudi Arabia leads the way but this is just the beginning. Science and Development Network www.scidev.net
[4]	World Bank 2013. Saudi Arabia www.worldbank.org http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.TER.ENRR/countries
[5]	Mills A. 2009 Saudi Universities reach toward equality for women. The Chronicle www.womenscolleges.org
[6]	eHow Family 2011. About Women in Saudi Arabia www.ehow.com
[7]	Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Ministry of Economics and Planning. 2008. Achievement of the Development Plans Facts and Figures Twenty-Fifth Issue 1390-1429H 1970-2008G". http://www.mep.gov.sa
[8]	Sawahel W 2011. Saudi Arabia: King opens women’s university. Science and Development Network www.scidev.net
[9]	Al-Assaf I. 2013. Saudi Arabia unveils record budget for 2013. US- Saudi Arabian Business Council www.us-sabc.org
[10]	Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission 2010. Background Educational System in Saudi Arabia. www.sacm.org/Education
[11]	Booz and Co. 2009. Women’s education in Saudi Arabia: the way forward www.ameinfo.com
[12]	Reisberg L 2011. Saudi Arabia’s Extravagant Investment in Higher Education: Is money enough www.insidehighered.com
[13]	BBC News 2009. Saudis open hi-tech science oasis http://news.bbc.co.uk
[14]	Al Khotami S 2010. Higher education opportunities for women www.susris.com
[15]	MOHE. 2012. Women in Higher Education Saudi initiatives and achievements. www.mohe.gov.sa
[16]	Riyadh: Arab news 2012. No plan to scrap scholarship program, says minister http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia
[17]	Bashraheel L. 2013. Steps taken to induct women in workforce http://saudigazette.com/saudiarabia
[18]	Khan GA 2011. Surge seen in women's university enrollment. Arab News http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article229401
[19]	ESCWA institute of statistics. 2011. www.escwa.org.lb
[20]	Statistical, Economic and Social Research and training Centre for Islamic countries 2011. Research and Scientific Development in OIC Countries. www.sesric.org/files/article/394.pdf
[21]	UNESCO Institute of Statistics 2011. www.uis.unesco.org
[22]	Zacaria F 2011. Comparing the status of women in Iran and Saudi Arabia. CNN World http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com
[23]	King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology www.kacst.edu.sa
[24]	Booz and Co. 2010. Women employment in Saudi Arabia: A major challenge www.ameinfo.com
[25]	Miller DE 2011. Saudi Arabia opens world's largest women university. The Jerusalem Post www.jpost.com
[26]	King Abdullah University for Science and Technology 2012 www.kaust.edu.sa
[27]	Al Jassem D. 2010. Education and Employment in Saudi Arabia. Arab news http://en.harakahdaily.net

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Samira Ibrahim Islam. (2014). Saudi Women: Opportunities and Challenges in Science and Technology. Education Journal, 3(2), 71-78. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20140302.15

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Samira Ibrahim Islam. Saudi Women: Opportunities and Challenges in Science and Technology. Educ. J. 2014, 3(2), 71-78. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20140302.15

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Samira Ibrahim Islam. Saudi Women: Opportunities and Challenges in Science and Technology. Educ J. 2014;3(2):71-78. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20140302.15

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@article{10.11648/j.edu.20140302.15,
  author = {Samira Ibrahim Islam},
  title = {Saudi Women: Opportunities and Challenges in Science and Technology},
  journal = {Education Journal},
  volume = {3},
  number = {2},
  pages = {71-78},
  doi = {10.11648/j.edu.20140302.15},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20140302.15},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.edu.20140302.15},
  abstract = {Women inequality is one of the issues used to criticize the policy in Islamic World. Social inequality fueled the outbreak of the Arab Spring. Ongoing plight across Arab counties had not achieved successful resolution. King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz focused on modernizing the deeply conservative Saudi society, governed by Sharia'a law, through Science diplomacy. Under his leadership, the kingdom's diplomatic relation with the developed countries was empowered allowing transfer of modern scientific education equally for both men and women. This included the overhauled of the existing scientific educational & research institutions, introducing new institutions with state of the art scientific facilities, promoting technology exchange of various research programs  with international scientific institutions, establishment of the first mixed-gender post graduate university , involving international faculties &students , scholarship program allowed male & female students to study at developed countries. The gender gap in university registration, Saudi Arabia ranks no. 25th. Saudi women are vigorously pursuing higher education especially in science at a rate greater than Saudi men & Western women. They are becoming pioneers in a variety of fields, most prominently in science and research, assigned in different types of posts which were not allowed, such as work in industry, leading decision making government, private sector posts & Shura cabinet members.  They are receiving international awards, granted patents for their ideas and innovations. King Abdulaziz first class Saudi medal awarded to women scientists.},
 year = {2014}
}

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TY - JOUR
T1 - Saudi Women: Opportunities and Challenges in Science and Technology
AU - Samira Ibrahim Islam
Y1 - 2014/01/30
PY - 2014
N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20140302.15
DO - 10.11648/j.edu.20140302.15
T2 - Education Journal
JF - Education Journal
JO - Education Journal
SP - 71
EP - 78
PB - Science Publishing Group
SN - 2327-2619
UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20140302.15
AB - Women inequality is one of the issues used to criticize the policy in Islamic World. Social inequality fueled the outbreak of the Arab Spring. Ongoing plight across Arab counties had not achieved successful resolution. King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz focused on modernizing the deeply conservative Saudi society, governed by Sharia'a law, through Science diplomacy. Under his leadership, the kingdom's diplomatic relation with the developed countries was empowered allowing transfer of modern scientific education equally for both men and women. This included the overhauled of the existing scientific educational & research institutions, introducing new institutions with state of the art scientific facilities, promoting technology exchange of various research programs with international scientific institutions, establishment of the first mixed-gender post graduate university , involving international faculties &students , scholarship program allowed male & female students to study at developed countries. The gender gap in university registration, Saudi Arabia ranks no. 25th. Saudi women are vigorously pursuing higher education especially in science at a rate greater than Saudi men & Western women. They are becoming pioneers in a variety of fields, most prominently in science and research, assigned in different types of posts which were not allowed, such as work in industry, leading decision making government, private sector posts & Shura cabinet members. They are receiving international awards, granted patents for their ideas and innovations. King Abdulaziz first class Saudi medal awarded to women scientists.
VL - 3
IS - 2
ER -

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Author Information

Samira Ibrahim Islam

Drug Monitoring Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Centre, Jeddah, KSA

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Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Samira Ibrahim Islam. (2014). Saudi Women: Opportunities and Challenges in Science and Technology. Education Journal, 3(2), 71-78. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20140302.15

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Samira Ibrahim Islam. Saudi Women: Opportunities and Challenges in Science and Technology. Educ. J. 2014, 3(2), 71-78. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20140302.15

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AMA Style

Samira Ibrahim Islam. Saudi Women: Opportunities and Challenges in Science and Technology. Educ J. 2014;3(2):71-78. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20140302.15

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.edu.20140302.15,
  author = {Samira Ibrahim Islam},
  title = {Saudi Women: Opportunities and Challenges in Science and Technology},
  journal = {Education Journal},
  volume = {3},
  number = {2},
  pages = {71-78},
  doi = {10.11648/j.edu.20140302.15},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20140302.15},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.edu.20140302.15},
  abstract = {Women inequality is one of the issues used to criticize the policy in Islamic World. Social inequality fueled the outbreak of the Arab Spring. Ongoing plight across Arab counties had not achieved successful resolution. King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz focused on modernizing the deeply conservative Saudi society, governed by Sharia'a law, through Science diplomacy. Under his leadership, the kingdom's diplomatic relation with the developed countries was empowered allowing transfer of modern scientific education equally for both men and women. This included the overhauled of the existing scientific educational & research institutions, introducing new institutions with state of the art scientific facilities, promoting technology exchange of various research programs  with international scientific institutions, establishment of the first mixed-gender post graduate university , involving international faculties &students , scholarship program allowed male & female students to study at developed countries. The gender gap in university registration, Saudi Arabia ranks no. 25th. Saudi women are vigorously pursuing higher education especially in science at a rate greater than Saudi men & Western women. They are becoming pioneers in a variety of fields, most prominently in science and research, assigned in different types of posts which were not allowed, such as work in industry, leading decision making government, private sector posts & Shura cabinet members.  They are receiving international awards, granted patents for their ideas and innovations. King Abdulaziz first class Saudi medal awarded to women scientists.},
 year = {2014}
}

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