Job Discussion Forums

007 · Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 10:45 am Post subject: For Women Only!

It seems the Magic Kingdom will build the first and biggest women-only university in this planet! The university will be based in Riyadh and will hold up to 40,000 students.

�The Princess Noura Bint Abdelrahman University for Girls will offer courses in subjects like medicine, pharmacy, management, computer sciences and languages that women find difficulty in studying in normal universities where strict gender segregation is enforced�
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE49S65L20081029

�Women make up 58% of Saudi Arabia�s student population but only 16% of the workforce, according to Unesco�
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/nov/01/saudi-arabia-middle-east

It seems one of the objectives of this university is to increase the number of women in the workplace.

Well, I wonder who will be the President of this university?
I have heard that it is one of the princesses of the Magic Kingdom?

Teta Mia, what do you think?
Do you think the Magic Kingdom is heading in the right direction concerning women rights?

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

But... as I understand it all the women's universities in Saudi are already women only so I don't see this as making any big difference now or in the future.

Not to mention that there have been women only universities in the world previous... even in the US. Last I heard there was still one in Washington DC because some of my Emirati students studied there after HCT.

What a waste of time and petrodollars... why not use the ones they already have to their potential.

VS

007 · Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:17 pm Post subject:

johnslat · Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:36 pm Post subject:

Dear 007,

It's an "investment" only if there will actually be careers for all who graduate. Do you think that there will be?

Regards,
John

Mia Xanthi · Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 5:08 pm Post subject:

Sorry, 007, but I don't think it is a step forward.

There was a time in my country when schools and universities were legally segregated, not male/female segregation, but black/white segregation. The existence of this segregation was justified by saying that the schools were "separate but equal". Then, our supreme court ruled that "separate but equal" was inherently unequal.

I think that the same reasoning applies to male/female segregation in KSA. True power rests only in the hands of males. If women are required to remain separate from this seat of power, they will always be second-class citizens. In the university where I work, we have separate male and female campuses. The male campus receives the best of everything, and the women's campus is always an afterthought. This happens in spite of the fact that the women are much better students than the men, and consistently do better on all measures of academic achievement.

How can you propose to give women a truly equal education while separating them from men? Until only recently, men have dominated academia everywhere in the world. Men represent at least half of the brightest minds in the world. The women who attend these "women only" universities will be deprived of access to half of the world's best minds.

I think that the only real goal of education for women in Saudi Arabia is to produce well-educated mothers, or at least to provide entertainment for young women until they are married off. I see no serious effort to integrate women into the workforce, unlike what is happening in the Emirates. It's a crying shame, given that the women of KSA are very bright and enterprising, and probably represent a much greater potential for the country than the men.

You asked for my opinion....and you got it! Wink

trapezius · Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 9:32 pm Post subject:

Most of the universities here are a dump. How about spending all the billions that will be used to make a new one to actually improve the exisiting ones?

And as it is true in the female campuses of exisiting universities and the female-only colleges, if they are unable to find qualified female faculty for a certain specialist courses, they will ask men to come teach them.

And someone already said, this is a step forward only if all the women coming out can get access to jobs where only men (mostly) are hired now, such as engineering, pharmacy, management, IT, etc.

The religious establishment does not allow mingling of men and women in workplaces unless women-only floors are made and/or barriers are erected. So, what's the point of a women's only university that teaches all those subjects but the women will be without jobs when they graduate?

trapezius · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 3:00 am Post subject:

I found this quite funny:

15yearsinQ8 · Joined: 17 Oct 2006 Posts: 462 Location: kuwait

MIA - the seperate but inherently unequal agreement you propose has 2 blatantly obvious errors - that of bayn mawr and smith colleges. i'll gush with pride when my daughters get accepted there (even though smith is so openly pro-lesbian it'll shock the hell out of them). few who regular this website have even heard of them....i might add, johnslat and scot please tell me you're learned enough .....

saudi already has a well known women's only college

but i agree, in the end, they're holding pens for the liberal rich before they marry

trapezius · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 12:05 pm Post subject:

15yearsinQ8 · Joined: 17 Oct 2006 Posts: 462 Location: kuwait

on my profile is
i can't spell - so don't corect me

ans you forgot Vassar which might be coed now

trapezius · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 12:36 pm Post subject:

No, I did not forget Vassar, as it has been coed for many decades.

Mia Xanthi · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 3:46 pm Post subject:

My point was that forced segregation is unequal. If one makes a choice to attend an elite, gender-segregated university, that is a different matter. The point is here that women in the Kingdom do not have a choice, at least not within KSA itself.

007 · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 10:33 pm Post subject:

Cleopatra · Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 5:33 am Post subject:

trapezius · Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:32 am Post subject: