JEDDAH, 26 December 2004 — A recent survey concluded that despite their increasing role in the workplace, the home remains a defining factor for women. They are becoming more dominant inside the home, not less, although they are taking on more roles outside the home.
Although the survey was on North American women, the results reflect the opinion of some Saudi women too. The study, conducted by LeoShe, a consulting unit of Leo Burnett global advertising agency, focused on revealing new thinking about female consumers and identified several key insights shaping women’s attitudes toward the home today.
“It’s very true that the home remains the most important thing for a woman, particularly in the Arab world,” said Lina Mokhtar, a project manager at an advertising agency. “It’s a priority and should be,” she added.
The study uncovered several insights that reflect this paradox. According to the study, many women today describe their role in the home in business terms — chief operating officer, managing director, etc. And, almost 60 percent of the women strongly agree that what it takes to properly care for a home is undervalued in today’s society. “I definitely agree and believe that it’s much higher in the Arab world, unfortunately,” Lina told Arab News.
Sixty-five percent of the women surveyed agree that it is possible for women to balance a successful career with a successful home. When asked what they most want to change about their homes, 60 percent surveyed said “their husbands”.
“It’s hard to balance home and career but we do it all the time because of our natural ability to multitask,” said Lina. “I do believe that a woman has a great ability to succeed in all of her responsibilities whether toward her own family, parents, friends or work,” said Jihan Kalai, assistant IT director at Bakhsh Hospital. A woman does not believe in giving up on something in order to succeed in something else, but rather she prefers to reduce her duties in something to be able to move ahead in something else.
“There is no harm if the people you are responsible for gives up something to help you succeed. People have to learn sharing and appreciating. When you dedicate yourself too much they tend to take you for granted which leads them to not appreciate what you are doing,” Jihan told Arab News. “They have to understand that we are all in the same boat and we have to row in one direction or we will never reach,” she added.
Denise Fedewa, co-founder of Leo Burnett USA’s LeoShe unit and a senior vice president and senior planner for the agency, attributed this trend to a reluctance by women to relinquish control over the home realm. “In one way or another, all women feel strongly about their role in the home, even if they remain steadfastly dedicated to their career roles,” said Fedewa. “Women relish the control they have over their home and the freedom they have within it to be creative. Despite the added demands this may put on her, she is in control and she takes pride in this.” “That’s why women call it ‘my kingdom’. It’s her territory — she rules there,” said Lina.
“I think what shapes the women’s attitude to her home in my point of view is her experience and memories of her own family home and her interaction with the family, what is her values, how she was raised and the cultural definition of a home,” said Dr. Maha Alatta, a family physician.
“I think one of the issues that made women play a more dominant role at their home are the fact that a lot of them are single mothers, have an uncooperative husband, and they are women with a strong responsible personality,” said Maha.
She finds that the reason their work at home is undervalued in today’s society is because of the media and how it presents women. It is possible for women to balance home and work if, “she is able to have a flexible working schedule, supportive facilities at work that help her take care of her children, good health insurance that would give good coverage and a supportive husband, family and friends,” she told Arab News.
As for those who want to change their husbands, “I think it has to do with control and power. Maybe for some of them the husband was not supportive, or he was demanding, controlling, a bad communicator and abusive,” she said.
Although she has questions on the size of the sample surveyed and how much it represents the American women in terms of background, she strongly thinks that despite the demands she has at work she still relishes the control she has over her home and she loves it.
