Gulf women's creativity versus obstacles highlighted

Manama, Dec. 5 (BNA): A recent research study revealed that "women in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states share some commonalities with women in other cultures, such as experiencing a lack of time and opportunities, often valuing relationships over creative work, and prioritizing endeavours that put the family first (Reis, 2002)." The study pointed out that "women in the Gulf region have their own unique challenges related to their social context. Difficulties in travelling without permission from their families, limited opportunities for training and skill development, lack of social support, and not being able to make major decisions in their life--such as whom they are going to marry - are just a few examples of challenges faced by GCC women (Al-Ahmadi, 2011; Taqi, 2016)." The study cited the "efforts that have been made by the GCC governments in the last two decades to offer social support for women. This support includes creating or modifying legislation to increase women’s engagement in society. For example, Saudi women were recently (June 2018) allowed to drive for the first time in history. Another facet of governmental support is evident in the establishment of official institutes to ensure equal opportunities for women (e.g., the Supreme Council for Women (SCW) in Bahrain and the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children in the UAE)." It pointed out that "GCC governments have made great effort to ensure equal opportunities for women in education and scholarships; therefore, it is not surprising that women comprise about 60% of the graduates from Gulf universities (Coffman, 2003). However, despite this support for women’s education, women in the GCC represent only 25% of the labour force, according to the World Bank2 . As in some Western countries, women’s underrepresentation in the work force is largely due to parent’s expectations for their daughters; that is, women should get married and have children (Reis, 2002)." This is in turn related to the fact that women in the GCC might have less time to engage in creative work. According to a United Nation’s (2017) report, the average household size in the GCC ranged between 5.3 to 8, compared with 2.1 in Germany, 2.3 in the United Kingdom and France, and 2.6 in the United States. Thus, time for creative engagement seems to be a major challenge facing GCC women.  In nutshell, women in the GCC have more support now than ever; they are highly educated, although society might not fully and directly benefit from its investment in women’s education due to some cultural expectations. Lack of time seems to be an issue due to the norm for large household size, which characterize GCC families.  As in Western culture, women in the GCC are expected to take care of extended family members. Thus, an aspect of the current study was to compare married vs. single women. The hypothesis is straightforward: single women would report fewer obstacles related to time than married women. As noted above, women in the GCC share some common challenges and barriers with women in other countries. GCC women also might face unique challenges related to their social context. This study aimed to explore four kinds of personal obstacles among GCC women, which will be specified after a brief discussion of the literature on gender differences in creativity.