Social Marketing , Education and the Female Workforce : A Comparison of United Arab Emirates and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Middle East Journal of Business

Publication Date

1-1-2015

Abstract

The religious, socioeconomic, and political status are fundamental principles that form the values of women's lifestyles in the Muslim World and especially in the GCC. It varies largely from nation to nation depending on how globalization has managed to affect the society in line with the lifestyles of modern living. The World Economic Forum report (WEF, 2014) shows that the UAE focuses on transforming the country into a diversified self-sustaining market-driven economy. The economic prosperity and presence in the world affairs is mainly due to the leadership's decision to form a free market economy. The open economy, attractive business platform and ease of life have encouraged expatriates to work and live in the UAE forcing its social values to open up. This has had a direct effect on the lifestyles of Emirati society, and women in particular. On the other hand, the exclusion of Saudi women from public life is no doubt a heated debate in the international scene. The government of Saudi Arabia has been strictly persistent in applying its cultural values in most macro-economic aspects such as education, technology (1), and policy. The research findings prove, based on the statistical approach, that government intervention has played a vital role in increasing the contribution of women in the workforce in both countries, the UAE and KSA, by supporting the required legal and official reforms. The substantial investment in education, of both governments, has proved to be one of the most important drives to increase the women workforce. Despite the different levels of contribution in the social media platforms, the survey conducted under the context of this research revealed that social media played a positive role in motivating women to work in both countries.

ISSN

1834-8769

Publisher

Medi + World International

Volume

10

First Page

39

Last Page

49

Disciplines

Business | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Indexed in Scopus

no

Open Access

yes

Open Access Type

Green: A manuscript of this publication is openly available in a repository

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