An inherent contradiction

The objective is to understand more about Saudi females as consumers, raising certain issues and talking about the changes taking place in their society.

You might be asking what is the FRC and why have they come up with a women's panel? Well, the FRC is a group of female only researchers specialized in Qualitative research, and the main reason for this panel is to bring these researchers closer to the female consumer target audience in terms of their latest beliefs, perceptions, aspirations and lifestyles. It is not the intention that this panel is representative of the population as a whole. Instead panelists are chosen because their past behaviour or attitudes suggest they may be trend setters slightly ahead of the crowd.

One issue the FRC discussed recently with these women was perceptions towards work and job opportunities. The young Saudi ladies on the panel are clearly ambitious for careers and say they are open to the changes in society's norms of behaviour necessary to accommodate such careers ; they certainly don't see themselves simply as clones of their mothers or grandmothers. They see their peers as often restricted by society, culture and family beliefs, causing many to curtail their personal ambitions and aspirations despite their qualifications. They see education and a career as liberating, a means of expressing who they are.

A sense of personal freedom is important and a value they hold on to and cherish. They are also reluctant to abandon or compromise that, even for the sake of marriage.

Instead their cherished hope is for an understanding knight in shining armour who will partner them, allow them to work, travel and experience the wider aspects of life often denied to previous generations of females. The younger Saudi ladies on our panel generally want to feel in control, responsible and knowledgeable, secure in their relationship but able to pursue the sense of fulfillment that a career can bring, at least until the babies arrive.

These young ladies describe career opportunities in the past as generally out-of-bounds. They describe the previous generations only interest as raising the children and satisfying the husband for fear of him taking up other wives.

They describe the main motivation for the few who did work in the past as simply to help the family finances rather than building a career - and they described teaching as often the only opportunity. It was seen as the only acceptable job for Saudi women in the past because it was in line with acceptable limits in terms of working hours and level of male contact.

They see things differently for their generation. They perceive that job opportunities have actually opened up significantly.

Acceptable and aspirational occupations nowadays include jobs in banks, hospitals, reputed local or international companies, and women only shops ; or starting one's own business.

These young Saudi women realize that the opportunities they are seeking will not always be easily acceptable to families or husbands. Concerns like a routine job, with minimal male contact, wearing the abaya and veil, flexible working hours, are all seen as requirements to satisfy their family and society ; and as restrictions which may contradict their own needs, ambitions and aspirations.

Their dreams and aspirations often go way beyond such irritating, relatively unimportant restrictions. They dream of owning their own company, becoming important businesswomen in society, traveling the world and expanding their social contacts - all with a perhaps surprising degree of independence.

They realize this would need courage and self confidence that represent a real personal challenge. They realize that these wishes would test or stretch the traditional boundaries.

What has opened their eyes and created such dreams ? 'This awareness is due to our exposure today to the West, and the evolution of media and communication. This can often be judged acceptable, and yet often not acceptable, 'as stated by a college student on the panel.

Considering their dreams and ambitions, these ladies generally also wish to respect their religion. Yet they realize the pressure this brings ; as mentioned by a female interior design student in Jeddah ; ' With more exposure, holding on to our religion will be like holding on to a piece of hot charcoal. '

But perhaps most interestingly, the innate conservativeness of this society returned as soon we asked our panelists to picture their future husband, family and children. With all the ambitions and aspirations they have for themselves, they tended to say that they will still prohibit their daughters from certain things - like traveling and working in a mixed environment, and would actually set limits and boundaries similar to the ones set by their parents and society currently! This apparent double standard was rationalized as necessary to protect the youngest from the dangers and harm that they could face in life. As admitted by one of our young panelists; 'As females our greatest fear is seduction and unscrupulous males who would try to take advantage of us.'

And so the circle is completed. On the one hand this new generation of Saudi women say they seek a different lifestyle to that which their society and family traditionally offers, yet they can easily relate to much that that entails when considering their own future family and children. An apparent contradiction. Will changing attitudes in society brought about real change by that time, or will the traditions which many would say actually define their culture prevail and slow down change with a sense of realism. Perhaps the FRC panelists can bring further insights in time.