Gender Opporturship In Saudi Arabia

716 Words3 Pages
Saudi Arabia is attributed to traditional gender role society. It is characterised by a patriarchal and heavily male dominated culture and entrepreneurship is regarded as a male dominated field (Ahmad, 2011). Women in such society are provided fewer opportunities to participate in different occupation including entrepreneurship. They face several hurdles and obstacles, e.g. lack of access to entrepreneurial training, lack of access to capital and honour issues are major concerns for the women. It is difficult for them to go outside and acquire training from some institution without a permission of their male guardian. As a result, women are provided with less training and development opportunities as compared to their males counterparties.…show more content…
). According to (Alturki & Braswell, 2010), 82.2% registered business women in Saudi Arabia rely on personal savings and 12.9% seek loans from relative and friends instead of external sourcing. They also lack in technological resources. 55.9% registered business women don’t have their own website and percentage is even higher for unregistered businesspersons which are 62.9%. Furthermore, Gender bias and inequality which prevail in the society affect women entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia. Fundamental and radical social culture and Islamic belief system pose challenges for women to pursue entrepreneurship. Even though, the review of previous studies of feminist movements in the Middle East show that religion is not against entrepreneurship, some radical and extremist elements in the societies inhibit women’s participation in business, employment and social activities. They do not permit women to seek entrepreneurial activities. They perceive that religion does not allow women to go outside the home and take part in important matters of the society, whether it relates to politics, economics or employment. Findings reveal that the majority of the women
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