The Educational Paradaox: Qatari Women Educated Yet Unemployed

This research focuses on a paradox: Qatari women are highly educated yet unemployed or underemployed in greater numbers. Though the emphasis is on women, this interview-based research also includes men’s perspectives on the matter. This paper tackles this paradox through an analysis of patriarchal structures, state, education, and culture. It asks how ten (10) Qatari youth view, understand, and experience Qatari women’s empowerment. Though women are being incorporated more in all fields of work, the culture and society still hinders them in terms of the normative culture it perpetuates and sustains. In addition, this paper presents findings from an online survey that was made available to the public both in English and Arabic. Through this mixed methodology, it was concluded that culture plays a pivotal role in Qatari women’s advancement. Women can only be widely employed in Qatar with the full support of both their private family and the public state. Though the unique economy in Qatar essentially allows women to stay at home –something almost impossible to envision anywhere else in the world including the West, where women’s salaries are essential. The literature is missing an understanding of how the internalization of patriarchy occurs, however, and how a conservative culture and society serve as the mobilizing factor to such a mentality. Finally, it is hoped that this preliminary investigation into the matter serves as a springboard for forthcoming studies on the generational difference and how it plays in socializing women for public mobility or restricting their access.