Historical and Contemporary Policies of Women's Education in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is one of the developing countries which has recognized the importance of education in modern life. Despite the fact that Saudi Arabia has worked seriously to develop and improve its educational system, the education of women has been given secondary importance compared to men's. Saudis tend to believe that women's education should be limited to what is helpful to women's achievement of their "primary" jobs as wives and mothers. Therefore, they close to women most scientific and technical programs. With the exception of medicine, women's fields of specialization are confined to the humanities and teacher training. Vocational education is exclusively for men as are the industrial, commercial, and religious institutes. The investigation of this sex-discriminatory educational policy is the major purpose of this study, particularly regarding its relationship to specific ideas emerging from religious and other traditions. The study adopted a descriptive-analytical approach to trace the deep roots of the tradition-related factors that negatively affect women's education and utilized quantitative methods, including questionnaires responded to by female students, their parents, and their young male relatives, as well as official publications and documents to explore the opinions and attitudes of those who will shape the future development of the education of women in Saudi Arabia. The findings of this study indicate that despite the significant increase in female educational institutions during the last two decades, women's education is still considered of secondary importance compared to men's and is still governed by restrictive traditional attitudes. The clash between modern and conservative elements regarding women's education is the major feature of the female educational system. Also it was found that the government expresses less support and promotion of women's education than of men's, not least as a result of the marginal participation of women in the labor force due to tradition and religion-related restrictions.PhDEducationUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/159880/1/8412084.pd