PPoorrttllaanndd SSttaattee UUnniivveerrssiittyy PPDDXXSScchhoollaarr Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses 7-7-1977 RRoollee DDeemmaannddss ooff PPrrooffeessssiioonnaall WWoommeenn iinn JJeeddddaahh,, SSaauuddii AArraabbiiaa Soraya Wali El-Deen Assad Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds Part of the Sociology Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits you. RReeccoommmmeennddeedd CCiittaattiioonn Assad, Soraya Wali El-Deen, "Role Demands of Professional Women in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia" (1977). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 2595. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.2592 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS of Soraya Wali El-Deen Assad for the Master of Arts in Sociology presented July 7, 1977. Title: Role Demands of Professional Women in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. APPROVED BY MEMBERS OF THE THESIS COMMITTEE: Jan , - man Hajda~,-~cniY!r Linda C. Majka Lee J. Haggert The present thesis is concerned with professional women in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Because of the social changes taking place in Saudi Arabia, the position of women is subject to both traditional and modern- istic influences. an· ·increasing number of are receiving ~Jhile fem~les higher education and expanding their aspirations, the traditional cul- tural values dealing with woman's role in the family are still an imper- tant consideration. The thesis is based on the theoretical perspective that the indi vidual ro1e system is overdemanding. Fulfilling role demands causes difficulty or "strain";. if a person conforms fully in one direction, fulfillment will be difficult in another. 2 ·The theoretical background is largely dependent upon American literature, since there is a lack of relevant empirical s~ciological study of professional women. in Saudi Arabia. Studies cited deal with the continuing between career, marriage, and motherhood: c~nflict difficulty in allocation of time, support or non-support of the working woman by husband, family, and others; behavior working ~xpected fr~m women; and the as~ertion of art identity. . This thesis is·of an exploratory It attempts to meas.ure n~ture. the degree of difficulty with which women manage employment in combina tion with domestic activities. Variables considered· are marital status, career type, and· interaction patterns of the women with men at their·" place of work. women are compared with single women; occupa ~arried tions which relate to the normatively accepted role are ·compared wcim~n's with those which are culturally less acceptable for women; comparisons are between women with 1e ast interaction with men, women with occa- m~de sional interaction with men, and women with most interaction. with men. on the previous variables, four hypotheses were formulated. ~a~ed . (1) Married women with children-are expected to experience the most dif- ficulty in terms of time allocation, while single women are expected to experience the least amount of difficulty .. (2) Women who work in fields .other than education and medicine are expected to experience the most difficulty with respect to network support and women who in the wo~k fields.of education and medicine are expected to experience the least difficulty in terms of network 'support. (3) Women wi'th the ·most inter action with men in the work situation (k.g., physicians, broadcasters, I ~ ------------------------~/ 3 interpreters, and interior decorators) are expected to experience the most difficulty in terms of contradictory expectations; women with the least interaction with men in the work situation (e.g., school teachers) are expected to experience the least amount of difficulty with respect to contradictory and women with occasional interaction expectat~ons; with men in the work (e.g., college teachers and administra situ~tion tors, social workers, investigators, and newspaper editors) will be somewhere bebieen the two extremes. ( 4) Women with the most interact i.on with men in a work are expected to experience the most diffi- situatio~ .culty i.n as.serting an identity; women with the least interaction· with men in· a work situation are to experience the least difficulty .exp~.cted in asserting an identity; and women with occasional contact·with men in a work situation wi 11 ·be somewhere between the two extremes. To serve the. study purposes of di and measurement, data sc~very ·were collected from non-standardized interviews and a standardi~ed questionnaire.: Data were obtained from interviews with thirty-~even native women, college· educated, between the ages of twenty and thirty five. Quantitative and qualitative information were incorporated. It. was found that the data l ly suppor.ted Hypotheses #1 , #2, ge~era and #4, and that they did· not support Hypothesis ·#3. (1) There seems to be a consistent pattern of relationships between ·marital status and time allocation. Married women reported more difficulty with respect to time allocation than did single women. However, married respondents indicated their occasional use of sets of mechanisms to allocate their time effectively. (2)· It was found that a .relationship exists between the type of occupation and network support... Women who work in the 4 fields of education and medicine seem to have more positive support than do women who work in other fields. However, women who work in other fields did not report negative support from their networks. (3).The- data show that the degree of contradictory role expectations is similar for all respondents regardless of the amount of .th~ir interac tion-with men at their place of work. Therefore, Hypothesis #3 is re jected. (4) The data indicate that the exclusion of males in occupa tional settings seems to reduce the respondents' difficulty in assert 1 ing their-identities. ROLE DEMANDS OF PROFESSIONAL WOMEN IN JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA· by SORAYA WALI EL-DEEN ASSAD A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in SOCIOLOGY ·Portland State University 1977 ' f· TO.THE OFFICE OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH: The members of the Committee approve the thesis of Soraya Wali El-Deen Assad presented July 7, 1977. Jan Hajda?&:rrmalfaic4__ Lee J. Hagge APPROVED: ar es nfey E. RauCh, Dean- of Graduate--Sludies and Research 1u +4a uewa OJ 9op' wos+ 9~eJ~ons' wos+ waJJ~Jnt . I ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wo.ul d 1i ke to. express my deep thanks and gratitude for the help and advice given by Dr. Jan Hajda, who served as the Committee Chairman for this thesis. His encouragement, patience, and insightful counseling-improved the quality of this thesis. I wish to express my thanks and appreciation to Or. Linda Majka and Dr. Lee Haggerty for their valuable comments and suggestions. Acknowledgment with gratitude is expressed to government em ployees in Saudi Arabia--men and women--who provided me with J~ddah, information that enabled the study to take place .. I thank all of the professional women whom I interviewed for their cooperation and understanding. My deep appreciation is expressed to my mother, .brothers, sisters, relatives, and friends for their support and encouragement. My heartfelt gratitude to my father,.~o whom I ·am greatly in debted. for my His sincere advice, help, and-accomplish initiat~ve. ments are appreciated and remembered by many of his students, colleagues,. friends, and relatives. His ingenuous beliefs and his as achieve~ents an educator have always been a major source of ;n·spiration to my brothers, my sisters, and me. Therefore, I wish to dedicate this document to the memory of my father, Wali El-Deen Assad. This work, above has been made possible by my faith in God all~ and his Prophet. - ..... .. ..... --~-...... ..._ --- - ... -- ........... TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iv LIST OF TABLES ix CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION AND CULTURAL SETTING 1 . II HYPOTHESES AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 12 Hypotheses . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Hypothesis 1 Hypothesis 2 Hypothesis 3 Hypothesis 4 Theoretical Background 15 III METHODOLOGY ..... 31 The Respondents 31 Considerations ... Prelimin~ry 35 Procedures Used with Respondents.• 36 Sampling School Teachers Sampling College Administrators and Teachers Sampling Social Workers, Investigators, News- paper .Editors, Interpreters, and Interior Decorators Sampling· Physicians ~ontacting the Respondents . . 40 . The Interview ..... . . . . . . 41 Combining Qualitative and Quantit~tive Data 44