Saudi Arabia & Resources: Gender-Biased Funding

 

     For the next category of obstacles, resources, Saudi Arabia’s issues are again unique from Egypt’s.  Saudi Arabia, as the ultimate welfare state, “provide[s] free, general scholarships for students (male and female) in some areas of general education and in all vocational, technical, technological, and higher education with free transportation for all females” (Alexander 200).  However, there is a distinction between the resources provided for women and for men.  Furthermore, “the budget for women’s higher education is only 18 percent of that allotted for men’s education” and “women students receive a smaller [college attendance] stipend than their male counterparts” (Somers 50).  Since most women in higher education will not go on to the workforce, the resources allocated for them have begun to reflect their likely roles as wives and mothers. 

 

     As a result, “[w]omen's facilities are inferior, class sizes larger, and access to resources limited.  For example, women can use the main library only one day per week, while men have access to it the other six days” (Somers 57).  Women’s education does not have priority status to the Saudi government, and therefore it is not a priority to the state-funded universities.  The way that resources are allocated reinforces the societal roles to which Saudi women are limited.  This presents an obstacle to women’s access to quality education.  Since females are not afforded the same equal opportunities as males, their access is inherently restricted.  In the case of the library, it is obvious that gender discriminatory policies enforced by the university prevent women’s access to education materials; as far as budgets, class sizes, facilities, and overall educational resources, it is clear that women are at a disadvantage.