Newest Paper Version

Running head: GENDER INEQUALITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Gender Inequality in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and The United States of America
Joslyn A. Brodfuehrer
Leonardtown High School
GENDER INEQUALITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Abstract
The purpose of this project is to educate and empower society members to overcome
barriers of gender inequality present in the local and global communities. Inequality can be
found in society, politics, cultural and regional customs, and the economy in almost every global
state. The difference, however, is in the type and origins of the gender inequality in each state.
For instance, domestic responsibilities are common for women in both Saudi Arabia and the
United States, however, the origin of domestic confinement lies in the oil industry in Saudi
Arabia whereas it lies in societal expectation in the United States. The topic education portion of
the project focuses on educating all members of society about gender inequality present in the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as well as the United States. Following topic education, the service
portion of the paper describes the service event that was conducted in correlation with the topic
in which female and male members of the community were empowered by a movie, leadership
forum, and empowerment activity.
Context of the Problem
A problem so large it encompasses the world, spans each continent, taking on different
forms in each region it inhabits. It is available in a variety of assortments in all sectors of life:
social, political, cultural, and economic classifications. Under cover, living under a mask to the
rest of the world maybe, however displaying itself in the clear open to those enduring the
problem as a lifestyle component. The problem is gender inequality, a gap in the gender
equivalence in which one sex takes precedence over its compliment. Though this gap exists in
many different countries, the gap in gender equality is profound in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
due to the differences of conditions and rights for each sex. Quite differently, the United States
faces a much less broad sense of inequality. According to the Global Gender Gap Report of
2015, in which 1 represents equality, and 145 represents the least equality, the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia ranked 134. In contrast, the United States of America ranked 28, falling on the lower end
of sex gap (Global Gender Gap Report 2015, 2015). While the depth and extremity of gender
inequality varies between both the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America,
each state contains unique social, political, cultural, and economic problems.
Global Problem
Saudi Arabia. Women face differing levels of inequality, but few countries surpass the
extent to which women face inequality in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Ranking last in country
ratings in the Middle East in each area of life, Saudi Arabias scores sit between 1 and 1.6 on the
scale for every category (Appendix A) (Nazir, 2005). The reasoning behind their scores lies
within the regulations and rules they face in every facet of lifestyle.
Social. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, several factors contribute to the social inequality
faced by women. Including tribalism and oil wealth, the factors broadening the gender gap in
Saudi Arabian society are both old and new occurrences. Tribalism is an aging form of gender
inequality. A characteristic of the whole Arab region, not just Saudi Arabia, tribalism is a
traditional mode of social organization that facilitates tribal endogamy and patriarchy, which are
not contingent to gender equality (Al-Rasheed, 2013, 18). The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one
of the countries within the patriarchal belt of the Middle East (Al-Rasheed, 2013, 28). The
patriarchal nature of the state is intertwined into the Saudi hierarchy in which women obey men,
young obey old, and nationals have more weight than foreigners (Nazir, 2005, 259).
Womens role in the home. While the home provides room for freedom, women still face
a level of discrimination within their own home. From birth until death, women remain
restricted under the roof of a male guardian. Women live with and receive financial support
from their father or male guardian until they are married. At that point, their husband relieves
the former male relatives of their obligations to his wife. In the home, women may associate
freely and remain unveiled, unless in the presence of their husbands male relatives (Saudi
Arabia, 2016). It may seem that women have slight equality in the home, but even in the most
personal of places, they face discrimination.
Womens role in society. Outside of the home, Saudi Arabian women are subject to an
increased amount of restriction. For almost every instance they leave the home, women are
required to be accompanied by their mahram, or male protector. A womans mahram is most
often her husband or father, however, brothers and uncles occasionally fulfill the position (Nazir,
2005, 262). When in the community, women must never interact physically or verbally with an
unrelated man. Further restrictions have stemmed from the inability of interaction between an
unrelated male and female. Women face the inability to drive cars, rent an apartment, check into
a hotel, and fly on an airplane without permission in order to maintain gender segregation.
However, more than laws play into gender segregation. In urban areas, visible and spatial
boundaries such as mosques, ministries, and streets create further restriction because they are
considered to be male territory. In most instances, women and men have separate buildings and
accommodations in order to maintain segregation, unless only one public space is available in
which womens visiting time is therefore restricted. Though accommodations are supposed to be
equal for both sexes, men usually fare nicer accommodations than women (Nazir, 2005, 262).
Female harassment. Wealth from the Saudi Arabian oil boom in the 1970s created an
unprecedented rise female participation in the shopping industry. Increased female shopping
fostered interaction between the sexes because women increasingly ventured outside of the home
to participate. Interaction with non-family members of the opposite sex was foreign to most
Saudi Arabian citizens. As a result, female harassment began to rise in Saudi Arabian society.
Responding to the feeling of unsafe conditions in urban areas, women became more content with
the idea of being accompanied by their mahram to dispel the tension (Al-Rasheed, 2013, 105).
Greater freedom from oil wealth only pushed women further into discrimination because they
began choosing male supremacy to remain safe. Saudi Arabia responded to the rise in
harassment with both society and police forces assuming a paternal role to guard the modest and
pious nature of women (Al-Rasheed, 2013, 106). In society, monitoring female behavior and
safety is seen as a collective male responsibility. To further enforce pious behavior and decrease
harassment, the government increased surveillance, police forces, and mutawwa, the religious
police in the public sphere. Police forces enforced acceptable styles of dress and reprimanded
those who did not abide by conservative outfit choice as ways of combatting harassment (AlRasheed, 2013, 105).
Freedom of Health. Women in Saudi Arabia not only lack interactive and spatial
equality, they also lack many rights to manage their own body. While all Saudi Arabians are
eligible for free government funded healthcare, women are required to fulfill many more steps in
their ability to utilize health rights. In most cases, Saudi Arabian women are required to obtain
the signature of their mahram for the approval of a surgical procedure, inhibiting their access to
healthcare. Not only do women face restriction in accessing health care, but they are also denied
the right to their body. Abortion is illegal in all cases. The kingdom does not tolerate wedlock
births, and arrest, prosecute, and strip employment from women who do not comply.
Additionally, the Ministry of Health has ordered that hospitals are unable to admit a women
unaccompanied by a man, for it is a possible sign of wedlock birth. In the eyes of the Kingdom,
allowing a pregnant women for which the babys father is not of marital relation to the mother
into a hospital is just like enforcing wedlock birth (Nazir, 2005, 270). Women often enter into
unwanted marriages to prevent societal humiliation and legal ruin from the pregnancy. Lack of
bodily control confines women into further inequality in not just health rights, but also marital
and societal status.
Marital relations. The marriage process in Saudi Arabia is also controlled by men.
According to Nazir, at the start of the marriage process, a contract is made between the womans
future husband and her mahram to minimize her role in the marital process. Women can inject
stipulations in the contract to legally protect herself from her husband. Inequality looms over
most of the marital and divorce process, with stipulations serving as womens only protection.
Divorce is almost unachievable if it is female motivated because women are only allowed to file
for divorce if the husband agrees or if any of the stipulations are broken. Men are treated in a
much different way in the divorce process, for they are entitled to a divorce without having to
explain their reasons. In the settling of affairs, the husband is granted sole access to children,
creating a disincentive for women to pursue divorce (Nazir, 2005, 262). Discrimination is
present in marriage contracts and divorce processes, a limiting factor in womens rights to
happiness with a spouse.
Inequality from the womans perspective. Inequality is rampant in Saudi Arabia, but not
all Saudi Arabian women feel mistreated because of the inequality. Within the Saudi Arabian
faction of women, two groups have emerged, the Islamist traditionalists and the liberals. While
liberal women seek to ban religious opinion enkindling inequality and create international
treaties of equality, the traditional side believes in fidelity to the Islamic tradition. This section
of women argues for greater surveillance of the public sphere. Islamic traditionalists seek
elimination of corruption, westernization, and sexualizing women. For these women, a
tightening of surveillance means greater security for not just themselves, but their family as well.
Maintaining the female ban on driving is also seen as favorable because wives would be able to
force their husbands into sharing more household responsibilities. Liberal women stand on the
opposite end of the polarity spectrum. Arguing for relaxed regulations and more opportunities
for employment, liberal women want to lessen restrictions placed on women. Each group of
women is modern and revolutionary because they view themselves as subjects, not property (AlRasheed, 2013, 29-32).
Political. Constructed under the banner of Wahhabi Islam, the most conservative version
of Islam, Saudi Arabia lives under the premise that they are different from all other post-colonial
Arab states. According to author Al-Rasheed, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia emerged with two
goals at the time of its conception: to purify society, through a return to authentic Islam, and emit
a fragrance of state piety. The result of adoption of Wahhabism, their state sponsored version of
Sunni Islam, transformed the religious application on the state into a religious nationalist project
that would potentially paint the state as pious. Piety is measured by the kingdom through
compliance with strict Islamist traditions. For the Kingdom, the question arose as to how they
might be able to link Islamic fidelity to proposed piety. The answer was women. Under the
religious nationalist project of application of Wahhabiya to the state, Saudi Arabia sought to
reapportion women with a new image of godliness and piety through their compliance with
Wahhabiya interpretation. Hoping that women would serve as their portal to piety and respect in
the global community, Saudi Arabia plunged into the religious nationalist protect, a step both
forlorn and irreversible. While Islam is an important part of the reiteration of Saudi Arabia, the
gap in inequality faced by women is less attributed to Islam, and more attributed to the
application of Islam through the nationalist movement (Al-Rasheed, 2013, 14-22).
Author Madawi Al-Rasheed argued that under the religious nationalist project, women
became the image of piety, therefore placing the task of protection partly on their shoulders. As
radical Islam and terrorism increased, the state continued to use women as pawns, only this time
to combat radicalization. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia urges women to educate children with
moderate Islam, and serve as the litmus test for recognizing early glimmers of radicalization (AlRasheed, 2013, 26). Specifically, after the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States, Saudi Arabia
began to loosen women restrictions because of their necessary role in combating the rising tide
of religious radicalization (Al-Rasheed, 2013, 40).
Under the assumed identity of an Islamic nation, the Saudi nation gained identity by
claiming to apply sharia law to all aspects of life (Al-Rasheed, 2013, 14). Sharia law, or
Islamic law, is the religious legal framework from which the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia governs
its kingdom. Due to the application of Islam on state affairs, Islamic ideology and values have
become intermingled with and adopted by the state. The legal system and government are based
off of Saudi interpretation of Islamic religious law, a law does not clearly lay out the relations
that should be withheld between the sexes. The basic law declares equality for all in
accordance of Islamic sharia, however, the execution of equality is rather unequal because of
the governments interpretation that women are not equal to men under religious law (Nazir,
2005, 258). Saudi Arabia declares equality, but in the eyes of the law, separate but equal is their
definition of equality. As a result, tighter legal restrictions for women are in place for their
personal behavior (Nazir, 2005, 258).
Although Saudi Islamic law does not offer equality for women, the state encourages
gender equivalence. The concept of gender equivalence in Saudi Arabia is similar to the
previous American concept of separate but equal segregation between the races. Under the
concept of gender equivalence, the state assures equality under the law in accordance with
segregation. However, gender equivalence does enforce segregation (Nazir, 2005, 259).
According to the author of Womens Rights in the Middle East and North Africa:
Citizenship and Justice, Sameena Nazir, gender not only affects the legal system, but also affects
the judicial system regarding punishment and marriage cases. While both women and men are
entitled to court use, women do not have equal access to courts. In Saudi Arabia, women are not
eligible to be lawyers, requiring all women to work through male lawyers in a case. Court rooms
in Saudi Arabia are filled with men fulfilling the roles of male lawyers and male judges. In
instances when a woman is unable to afford lawyer costs, they often have to resort to reliance on
their husbands. Husband reliance often limits the access women have to justice because in court
cases arguing martial issues and child custody, the women are being defended by their adversary.
With a court room surrounded by men and possible adversary representation, women feel
discouraged to use the court system. In the eyes of the law, women are not considered to be
equals of man. Similarly, in the perspective of the court, women are not considered a full person
because the testimony of a man counts for two women. Women tend to endure more
punishments for crimes than their counterparts because many crimes such as public unveiling are
gender specific (Nazir, 2005, 260).
Islamic application. In a country built on Islam, Islamic influence occurs from both the
inside of the government and on the outside with Wahhabi ulama and fatwas. Ulama are Muslim
scholars considered to have expertise in Islamic law. Fatwas are religious rulings made by the
ulama on the subject of Islamic law (Al-Rasheed, 2013, 20). The ulama have issued more than
30,000 fatwas on women, many of them arguing for tighter control on women to enable them to
portray piety and protect the state from westernization (Al-Rasheed, 2013, 110-112). Fatwas
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concerning gender relations are partly to blame for female exclusion and dependency in the
country (Al-Rasheed, 2013, 20).
Voting and running for office. According to McDowall, the author of Saudi Arabian
Women Vote For the First Time in Local Elections, before December 12, 2015, Saudi Arabian
women lacked two serious political rights that set them apart from most democracies: the right to
vote and run for political office. For their first voting experience, women were only allowed to
participate at the local council elections. In addition, women were allowed to run for political
office. Even though this is a recent policy change for Saudi Arabia, the kingdom has a long
history of banning political participation. Despite the apparent air of suffrage after policy change,
inequality was still in the air during voting as the men and women went into different parts of the
building to cast ballots. Women also had a low voter turnout, because only 1.1% of Saudi
Arabian women participated through voting in the election (McDowall, 2015). Inequality fueled
by limited means of transportation and societal expectation for women was underlying even in a
seemingly positive policy (Uber Offers Free Lifts to Women Voting for First Time in
a Saudi Election, 2015).
Citizenship. According to Nazir, citizenship rules function very differently for men and
women. In Saudi Arabia, if a woman marries a non-Saudi citizen, her children are not eligible
for Saudi Arabian citizenship, whereas, if men marry a non-Saudi citizen, family members may
earn citizenship through an application process. In terms of executing their own citizenship,
women are not allowed to apply for identity cards without getting the permission of their
mahram first. Citizenship only varies by gender in Saudi Arabia in identity card application and
offspring citizenship (Nazir, 2005, 259).
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Military participation. As of 2012, Saudi Arabia is has begun the process of exploring
the process of changing their military policy towards women. Whereas women were previously
unable to be a member of the military, Prince Mitaab Bin Abdullah, head of the Saudi National Guard
is looking into creating a new department within the military to recruit female soldiers. This
exploration shows the possibility for advancement in females rights, but women still remain, as
they have in the past, largely inferior to men in the political sphere, with new rights acquiring
slowly (Riyadh, 2012).
Cultural.
Islam in the context of Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a kingdom of
Islam. The main purpose and function of the kingdom is Islam, the religion underlies in almost
every faction of society and political life. There are reasons for the prominence and importance
of Islam in Saudi Arabia, including geography and descent. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
contains many Islamic landmarks within its borders. Saudi Arabia is home to the birthplace of
Muhammad and home to two of the most sacred cities in Islam, Mecca and Medina (Saudi
Arabia, 2016, para 3). Even though the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia houses the birthplace of
Muhammed, Muhammed is an important figure to the region for more reasons than geography.
Muslims consider Muhammed to be the seal of prophets, or the last prophet to receive
revelations from Allah their God. The revelations from Allah to Muhammed are documented in
the Quran, the Muslim holy book. In the Quran, proper behavior, known as Sunna, is revealed
through the actions taken by Muhammed. The Muslims hold Muhammed upon a pedestal in not
just their religion, but in the governance and societal functioning of Saudi Arabia as well (Saudi
Arabia, 2016, para. 2). Saudi Arabian society is built upon the concept of proper behavior
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revealed in the Quran, and enforced through Sharia law, or Islamic law, which is law based on
the Quran and Muhammads teachings (B. Byrnes, personal communication, January 21, 2016).
In Islam, the Hadith proclaims men and women as counterparts. However, this does not
mean that differences do not exist within the religious parameters for expression. In the mosque,
women are required to be completely covered, except for their face and hands. They must not
spread their limbs during prayer in order to remain modest. Differences exist in mosque
etiquette and practice as well. If a woman were to lead a prayer amongst other women, she must
be careful to not read loud enough for her non-mahram males, or familial protectors, to hear her
(Women & Men Praying Difference, 2015). Men attend the mosque, but women are
encouraged to stay at home and pray where they are safe (Nazir, 2005, 262). When women do
attend the mosque, they face segregation in designated areas behind the men (Saudi Arabia,
2016).
If the imam makes a mistake, the men correct the imam, while the women have to
respond with clapping (Al-Munajjid, 2015).

According to CIA world fact book statistics, in Saudi Arabia, Islam is the only officially
recognized religion, and all religious practice inconsistent with the governments interpretation
of Sunni Islam is restricted. Citizenship statistics are reminiscent of Islam being the only
authorized religion. The Saudi population is Muslim, 90% Sunni and 10% Shia, since those not
practicing Islam are unable to achieve citizenship. Non-Muslims worship is restricted to the
home and small religious books, since non-Muslim congregation and places of worship are
prohibited (Saudi Arabia, 2015).
Education and religious nationalism. The main goal of the religious nationalist project in
Saudi Arabia was to exude piety and deviate little on the path of Islam. Both education and
welfare services for women are key tools of the religious nationalist agenda, to be used as ways
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to convert women into demonstrators of state piety and to properly raise the youth. With the
mission of a world vision of Saudi Arabia as pious, the state laid out a plan of accomplishing this
vision through the religious nationalist project. First, women are recipients of welfare services
designed to keep them in a subordinate position with one job, demonstrating the piety of the state
(Al-Rasheed, 2013, 14-18). For the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, education for women was used as
an instrument of religious nationalism in which women were the pawns that demonstrated state
piety and traditionalism (Al-Rasheed, 2013, 77). Second, Saudi Arabia wanted to educate its
women so that they could become good mothers, who would in turn rear a millennial population
of obedient children, thus creating a homogeneous nation. Through the upbringing of the
nations next generation, women became important state contributors of the nations success, and
were seen as deserving of education to make this happen (Al-Rasheed, 2013, 20). The state
declared the purpose of educating a girl is to bring her up in a proper Islamic way so as to
perform her duty in life, be an ideal and successful housewife and a good mother, ready to do
jobs suitable to her nature such as teaching, nursing, and medical treatment (Kechichian, 2008,
117). The state effectively combined its vision for education with the religious nationalist values
to create a compromise both beneficial to themselves, the women, and the nation.
Education. Due to its religious ties to state affairs, Saudi Arabia was unable to
modernize without opposition. Modernization of the state through girls schooling was supported
by Kings Saud and Faisal, but strongly opposed by many because of possible contradiction with
the Wahhabi religious nationalist movements that urged a return to authentic Islam (Al-Rasheed,
2013, 77). Formal schooling was opposed by religious scholars with whom religious education
lie, because it undermined their own control over religious education and literacy. The scholars
feared a decrease in their monopoly of education, and an introduction of new visions they would
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not be able to control (Al-Rasheed, 2013, 89-90). The question became, how could the state
project themselves as a modernizing agent and at the same time coincide with authentic Islam?
To achieve their goal of modernization and a new image of benevolent education, girls were put
under the education and jurisdiction of religious scholars. By putting the girls under religious
scholars, the state argued women were still reflecting an image piety because they remained
faithful to traditional Islam, but at the same time, the state was modernizing because the women
were still being educated. The educational structure spawned the idiom, modernization within
an Islamic framework, which claimed that the state had effectively combined modernization
and traditionalism (Al-Rasheed, 2013, 77).
According to Madawi Al-Rasheed, Professor of Anthropology of Religion at Kings
College London, as controversy between the ulama and state over education was dispelled with
compromise, a new barrier arose between women and education: the parents. As schooling was
introduced, many women were forced to cease school as soon as they were proposed to, since
education could delay marriage by many years. Arguments over whether girls should be allowed
to prioritize education erupted, only to be countered with a resounding silence. With no answers
as to priority, Saudis turned to fatwas to have jurisdiction over the problem. In the parents eyes,
an educated daughter was good to have, but should not be trumped by marriage because it does
not guarantee marriage, a job, or stability (Al-Rasheed, 2013, 106-107).
Isobel Coleman, author of Paradise beneath Her Feet: How Women are Transforming
the Middle East, presented an instance of increased equality through collegiate education for
women. Since the introduction of girls schooling in Saudi Arabia, larger institutions have
adapted to bring advanced technology and teaching to girls. An example is Effat University, the
first private womens college in Saudi Arabia, which was later upgraded to university in 2009.
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Originally, the university was strongly resisted by conservative religious leaders. The university
now teaches all courses in English to give girls an extra competitive edge in the global job
market, as well as broaden the teaching material. In effort to diversify the jobs women are taking
in the workforce, Effat University offers a broad range of majors, including business and
technology, and has partnered with major American universities. Gender constrictions are void
at the university, for male professors teach the girls face to face in the same room. Despite the
decrease in gender discrimination, this institution is an exception, and the majority of women in
Saudi Arabia have little to no access to education of this kind (Coleman, 2010).
Economic. While Islam and patriarchal social structure are partly to blame for the
gender gap in Saudi Arabia, oil wealth is another culprit in the widening economic gender gap.
Oil wealth has not only inhibited female participation in the labor force, but has also constricted
them to traditional roles and jobs (Al-Rasheed, 2013). Most women in Saudi Arabia do not
work, a characteristic derived from all compiled sources of inequality (Saudi Arabia, 2015).
Oil Industry. While the growing oil industry has improved overall wealth of the nation,
it has effectively inhibited female participation in the work force. As a whole, the oil industry
remains male-dominated because society believes the jobs are not female appropriate. Lack of
oil job availability has confined women to jobs such as teaching, administration, banking,
writing, and medicine (Al-Rasheed, 2013, 22).
Oil jobs are not the only part of the oil industry widening the gender gap. The increase in
wealth from the oil industry has enabled the country to be able to support gender segregation.
Jobs in the oil industry provide men with stable wages that allow them to employ domestic
servants for tasks within the home. Re-delegation of domestic tasks to servants both banished
and liberated many women from their traditional household roles. Women began to partially
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penetrate the economy with a participation rate of 12%, but many women who had previously
been preoccupied with household duties and childcare lost that responsibility. Wealth allowed
the government to enforce segregation with parallel institutions for each sex, employment of
foreign professors, and greater surveillance. Oil wealth has allowed Saudi Arabia to employ
foreign professors to prevent women from traveling abroad and increase surveillance to monitor
veil compliance. Wealth has allowed Saudi to enforce segregation, therefore assisting in the
religious nationalist movement of portraying themselves as pious (Al-Rasheed, 2013, 22-25).
Workplace freedom. Women stand largely unequal to men in most sectors of the
economy. However, a new exception has arisen in the banking industry. With new bank
training courses, women have become involved in the banking industry. Banks have now
become safe havens for women in which they are able to un-veil and chat with one-another, a
luxury previously left to the home (Bernard, 1987, 225n).
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia adds reform gradually, hoping to dispel the threat of
instability from revolutionary change. The women question has been around in Saudi Arabia
since the height of globalization, taking on new forms, growing, and expanding (Al-Rasheed,
2013, 29-32).
The United States of America. Though the United States is much different from the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it shares its own classification of gender inequality. Though not as
large, the gender gap in U.S. does exist, and causes problems for U.S. women. The difference in
womens roles can be attributed to numerous things, the biggest being lifestyle. U.S. society
holds a different structure, since democracy and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment aim to lessen the gap between sexes and races in the United States (T. Harding,
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personal communication, January 11, 2016). Civil liberties in the United States proclaim
equality for all, but do not guarantee equality.
Social. The lifestyle and familial organization of the U.S. is far different than that of
Saudi Arabia, because many people in the United States welcome modernization with open arms.
Lifestyles have changed over the past century, but it was not until recent that women are
fulfilling the exercise of choice within their society (Womens Pro-Choice March, 1969).
Historical context. In the late twentieth century, women in the United States were still
fighting for rights. Particularly, before 1973, it was not uncommon for women to march the
street in search of gaining the right to their bodies through abortion (Appendix B). Women later
won the right to have an abortion in 1973 through the Roe v. Wade (1973) decision that ruled that
women were protected by their right to privacy (Womens Pro-Choice March, 1969).
Twentieth and twenty-first century United States. Familial organization changes since the
late twentieth century have brought on new rights for women. The U.S. used to endorse
traditional families, which are families containing a mother, father, and children. Different
familial organizations have risen to popularity including single parent households and same-sex
households (United States of America: Family, 2016, para. 1). Different household
classifications have distorted the concept of breadwinners, in the U.S. household. For many U.S.
men, there is still a strong cultural expectation that he be able to provide for his family, but it is
increasingly common for women to work, and take on the role of breadwinner (United States of
America: Family, 2016, para. 5). With more women working now, men are expected to share
the duties of household tasks and child raising. Many couples and single parents are resorting to
daycare facilities to help take care of the children because mothers are increasingly working.
However, women still spend over two times as much time doing domestic duties and chores than
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men in the home (United States of America: Family, 2016, para. 6). Compared to Saudi
Arabia, women in the United States have made more gains in closing the gender gap with their
social progression.
Even though women have made tremendous gains in the areas of social rights in the
United States, their equality is only relative. When put next to conditions of Saudi Arabia, the
current position of women in the U.S. appears fairly equal. However, in the United States,
society has continued to uphold the traditional view of familial structure and the role that women
should fulfill, serving as a barrier to continued womens equality (United States of America:
Family, 2016). Achievements in greater equality have been made, but further progress is
needed to equalize the home and work roles of women in the U.S.
Political. Since the early twentieth century, women in the United States have made
tremendous gains in political rights. Before women gained these rights, womens movements
joined with other groups fighting for rights such as African Americans. Together, women groups
and other groups fought together for rights such as the right to vote (T. Harding, personal
communication, January 11, 2016). Even though women are still fighting for political rights
today, gains made throughout the twentieth century far surpass the speed in which Saudi Arabian
women have gained rights.
Suffrage. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, women fought tirelessly for
the vote. However, the suffrage movement could not function without public awareness.
Womens suffrage groups used material information in print documents to explain their reason as
to why women deserved the vote. In one instance, the National American Suffrage Association
used a document titled, Votes for Women!, to present their reasons as to why women deserve
to vote alongside men. The Association argued that women deserved the vote because women
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obey the laws just as men do and suffer from bad government just as men do (Appendix C)
(Votes for Women!, 1912). Suffrage movements often used demonstrations to spread their
message and gain followers. Demonstrations were used to draw attention to the movement,
therefore evoking empathy within the audience for the women. In one instance, the suffrage
movement held one procession on March 13, 1913 in Washington D.C. to bring attention to the
suffrage movement as a whole (Appendix D) (Official Program of the Woman Suffrage
Procession, 1913). The work of the suffrage movement was fruitful when women gained the
right to vote in 1920 through passage of the Nineteenth Amendment (T. Harding, personal
communication, January 11, 2016).
Women in the military. Women in the United States have made many gains in voting
inequality they experienced, but modern day women are still fighting for rights, one of which
includes the right for women in the military to be allowed in combat. When women were first
allowed admission into the military, they originally only filled support positions such as nurses
(Appendix E) (Which One of These WAC Jobs Would You Like?, 1943). Women have since
lessened the gender gap in the military by gaining career positions such as piloting fighter jets
and working on the aircraft carriers. Until December of 2015, women fought for the right to be
considered for front line combat and Special Forces positions. Inequality existed for women
because they were unable to be equally considered for the same military positions as men
(Women in the Military, 2007). In December of 2016, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter
announced that all combat jobs would be opened to women. This was an achievement for female
equality considering their progression from assistance roles in the twentieth century, to full
integration in 2016. While this may appear to be a complete achievement for women in the
United States, it was opposed by Marine Corps section of the naval military branch. Regardless
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of opposition, this newly gained opportunity for women to join all sectors of the military sphere
surpasses the current ineligibility of Saudi Arabian women (Philipps & Rosenberg, 2015).
Economic. Though women have undergone an immense fight for political, social, and
economic rights in the United States, they stand much more equal in those categories when
compared to Saudi Arabia. Many more women in the United States work today, with 57% in
the workforce, partly as a result of strain from the 2008 recession. In contrast from Saudi
Arabia, women in the United States can be found working in every sector, however, they tend to
concentrate in the fields of politics, education, healthcare, and business and are typically
underrepresented in the highest levels of corporations. The current level of participation and
integration enjoyed by working women in the United States results from a compilation of events,
including wars such as World War I and II and recession because of female necessity in a time
where males were not available (United States of America: Family, 2016).
Women in the workforce. Before women began joining the workforce in large numbers,
most women fulfilled domestic work duties such as cleaning and taking care of the children
within the confines of their home. However, as women began to be drawn to work outside the
home in large numbers, many Americans believed that the image of the traditional American
household was being destroyed. Families with working others countered this argument, arguing
that it was necessary for them to go to work because their husband could not find work.
Counterarguments have been made that men were actually unable to find work because of
women that were trying to help were taking all of the jobs that men could have filled (Leiby,
1933).
During World War II, a world of new career possibilities opened for women in the
military field when the men went to war. The war effort revolutionized gender roles in America
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because due to husbands leaving for war, a large quantity of women left the home and their
domestic roles in order to support the economy. During World War II, 150,000 women served in
the womens army corps to support the war effort in a variety of jobs (Appendix F) (Which One
of These WAC Jobs Would You Like?, 1943). The war effort created a need for women to
support the United States, thus drawing them out of domestic roles, and introducing them to job
careers.
Equal wages. According to Alice Kessler-Harris, author of A Womans Wage: Historical
Meanings and Social Consequences and professor of American History at Colombia University,
women in America have access to a wide variety of career options, however, equality of job
opportunity has not guaranteed them equality of pay. The question of wage work did not arise
until the early twentieth century when women became drawn into wage work as a result of the
effects of war and depression. By World War I, women were taking jobs in the military to
support the war effort. Despite the growing integration of women into the U.S. economy,
resolutions and statements passes by several boards proved to be fruitless in the fight for equal
pay. In 1919, the Commission on Industrial Relations proposed that public opinion and
legislation recognize that women should receive the same compensation as men for the same
service (Harris, 1990, 83). Later, in 1919, Michigan and Montana passed equal pay laws. By
World War I, the Women in Industry and Service and the War Labor Board also supported the
principle of equal pay in jobs for women. Regardless of the support, the statements released, and
the dedication of boards to recognize that women deserved equal pay, they did not achieve it at
the time. From the 1920s on, equal pay was the only subject of cooperation and agreement
between the Womens Bureau of the Department of Labor and the National Womens Party.
These two opposing feminist groups disagreed on everything; equal wage was the exception.
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Equal pay was seen as profitable to all parties because it could eliminate competition faced by
men due to womens cheap labor, therefore protecting their jobs. With benefits to both sexes,
the question seemed clear cut. In 1963, the Equal Pay Bill prohibiting differential wages for
women doing equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and
responsibility, and which are performed under equal working conditions was released (Harris,
1990, 81). The resounding slogan of equal pay for equal work was created as a result of the
Equal Pay Bill, and is still referred to by many politicians today (Harris, 1990, 81-87). Women
have officially gained equal pay in the work place, but many people argue a gender gap still
exists regarding pay because of females receiving lower pay as a result of maternity leave.
When comparing the overall earnings for men and women, a disparity between the wages
is evident between the genders. For example, when comparing the annual median pay of male
and female software developers, there is a four percent difference in the earnings of men and
women. The difference in earnings between the genders occurs because mens wages grow for a
longer period of time and achieve higher promotional levels. Wage fluctuation differs for men
and women because they tend to choose different kinds of professions, and women tend to have
more familial duties due to child bearing. A difference in earnings for males and females does
exist in the United States, and has become a huge barrier to women gaining equality in the
workforce (Do men really make more money than women?, 2016).
Women in the workforce. Modern day women in the United States have overcome
centuries of opposition, as seen through their integration into the work force and out of the home.
As of 2015, more women than men achieve higher education, and 57 percent of American
women are employed (United States of America: Family, 2016). Though more than half of
American women are employed, the condition of women in the United States still holds
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resemblance to the conditions faced by women in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In Saudi
Arabia, women who are employed outside of the home are concentrated in the education and
health sectors of the economy (Al-Rasheed, 2013, 22). Though individual job environments that
have high concentrations of women appear more equal, the inequality lies within females being
concentrated in specific industries (J. Brodfuehrer, personal communication, January 24, 2016).
Women tend to concentrate in the fields of nursing, elementary education, and human resource.
89% of nurses are women, 86% of elementary school teachers are women, and 90% of human
resource officers are women (Do men really make more money than women?, 2016). In
proclamation 5532 of President Reagans Presidential Papers, he announced that American
business women have already made significant contributions to business, but regardless of their
advancements, women should constantly be diversifying their skills in order to expand horizons
and achieve higher career goals (Reagan, 1986).
Community Need
Topic Importance. Inequality that women face in these specific countries are problems in
their own. Saudi Arabian gender inequality has a lot to do with all women, women all over the
world, not just in America. The problem could be faced by American women, but they happened
to be born in a country not plagued by the same self depreciating factors. The it could have
been me statement is the reason why Saudi Arabian gender inequality impacts women, and
American women and men should be aware of the travesties faced by their counterparts in Saudi
Arabia. Women and people all over the world should care about gender inequality not only
because of the effect on themselves, but because of the effect on gender roles and societal
relations in the international community.
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Impact. The gender inequality problem has been running rampant in the Middle East since
the advent of Islam during the time of Muhammad. Due to the ties between inequality and
Islam, it is hard to rid a country whose society and government structure is based on Islam, of the
gender inequality. This problem has impacted and will continue to impact women in Saudi
Arabia and the rest of the Middle East, and little can be done to improve the gender gap unless
reform occurs within the home country. Since little can be done by outsiders to improve the
problem in Saudi Arabia, this impact of inequality can be tackled at a local level, by teaching
American girls about the problem, and giving them tools they can use to overcome inequality
they may face.
Reason. The reason for this project is to inject awareness of gender inequality into American
society, starting at a community level in order to provide women in the United States with an
opportunity to lessen the gap between themselves and men. Many people in the United States
are unaware of what is experienced by women in other parts of the world, and they should be
conscious of the occurrence. By understanding the inequality faced by women in other
countries, specifically Middle Eastern countries, women in the United States may be able to
better comprehend and compare their own level of inequality and its prevalence in the past.
Information about inequality and strategies to cope with it are needed if women are to combat
inequality and close the gender gap.
Stakeholders.
Women. Gender inequality affects many different people in Saudi Arabia, but it is the
women who are most affected. It is women who have to bear the regulations and rules originally
imposed by their King, and enforced by their husbands and fathers. Many of the women in the
Middle East as a whole do not view themselves as oppressed, however they are lacking many of
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the freedoms held by women in other areas of the world. It is these women who have to gain
through lessening restrictions placed on them in their country.
Men. Saudi Arabian men hold very different stakes in the inequality issue. While
women have freedoms to gain by an increase of rights and deregulation, it is the men who will
face a loss of power. A power gap exists in Saudi Arabia, one in which the men have increased
power due to the deficit of freedoms experienced by the women. If rules and regulations for
women were reduced, the power exercised by men in terms of their jurisdiction and protection
over women would not be as prominent. Men would not only lose control of the women, but
would also lose their housemakers, child providers, and child educators. There is little to gain
for men when they already have the advantage.
People in the United States. People residing in the United States live a lifestyle that
incorporates the ideals of the men who founded the country superimposed on achievements
gained by those after them. Females and males in the United States are for the most part equal in
every sense of life. Though some discrepancies are faced today, including the unequal wage
topic, for the most part the population of the Americans are held on an equal playing field in the
job market, in society, and in politics. For that reason, many Americans, specifically women, are
unaware of the gender deficit in the Middle East, and more specifically, Saudi Arabia because it
is not a problem they directly experience at home. In terms of this problem, American citizens
would benefit from this topic because they would receive awareness about the differences in
equality between genders faced in a different region of the world, and learn about the lifestyle
that could have been theirs if they had been born in another country and its lifestyle.
Urgency of the issue. Inequality is not isolated. It cannot be contained to one area, cannot
be relegated to a specific group of people. It is a problem that can take any form whether it be
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physical oppression in the form of violence, material oppression in the form of clothing, or
societal oppression in the form of culture. If not addressed, inequality could remain stagnant.
The importance of women would continue to be undervalued, their talents locked away. This
does not have to be the case. If given the opportunity, information, and empowerment, women
in many countries, specifically Saudi Arabia and the United States, would have the ability to
forge their own lifestyle and close the abyss of gender equality that lie between them and men.
Organization and Environment
Project Identification and Purpose
The deficit of gender equality in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East as a
whole has been a longstanding problem and continues to loom in the future. Even though Saudi
Arabian inequality is a difficult problem to solve due to its roots in religion, the problem can be
targeted in a much different manner: information. Gender inequality in Saudi Arabia occurs
through an intense level of governmental and societal enforcement, but that is not to say gender
discrimination is limited to only the Middle Eastern region. Gender inequality occurs in the
United States, and though occurring in a different fashion, it poses a threat to the women who
live there. Gender inequality can be seen as a unit of comparison, tying the United States and
Saudi Arabia together because of its prevalence in each society.
To combat this problem in the local community, a movie demonstrating female
discrimination will be shown and followed by an informational seminar to an audience of Girl
Scout troops ages 11-17. Awareness of the problem through visual images in the movie, and
auditory response in the seminar serve to make the issue real to the audience, and empower the
girls to overcome the inequality they face in the United States. Female empowerment at a local
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level through information and problem awareness at the global level is the purpose for
conduction of the project.
Services
The services that will be provided in this event consist of an informational movie and
empowerment seminar. Different from the movie, whose purpose is to inform the audience of
gender inequality in the Middle East, the seminars purpose is to synthesize the information
presented and learn skills to cope with gender inequality in the United States. Services such as
discussion and activities that will build on the movie and be applicable in the audiences future
will be used in the seminar. By combining an empowerment discussion with activities to teach
and discuss leadership and confidence skills, the seminar will work with the movie to
encapsulate the projects motive of empowerment through information.
Activity Model
Movie projection for the purpose of information and empowerment has been used before
by both large organizations, and community members. Previous project conduction by the Big
Dream Movement and Rosie Click, Leonardtown High School graduate of 2014 will serve as
models for our project.
Produced by Microsoft, the movie Big Dream follows the stories of seven young girls
working to overcome barriers and pursue their diverse passions. The movie is generated to
immerse viewers in a world designed by and for the inspiring next generation of girls from the
streets of the Middle East, to local communities in the United States (Cox, 2016). Microsoft and
Iron Way Films are using their film to empower those who watch their informational movie.
In 2013 Rosie Click, a former student in the Global International Studies program at
Leonardtown High School, used a similar model to conduct her capstone service project on
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human trafficking at the local community level. Clicks first event consisted of a movie
screening of Girl Rising to an audience of Girl Scouts, high schoolers, and community members.
The documentary informed the audience of obstacles faced by girls, with the intent of inspiring
its viewers to take action in their own communities. Before the event, Click had a brief
discussion with the audience about the topic she was addressing and its application to the film.
Click reflects on her event as successful in regard to bringing a global problem local (R. Click,
personal communication, February 20, 2016).
Using the models set by local Rosie Click, and the global Big Dream Movement, my
partner and I hope to set up another successful event and project that will both inform and
empower the girls that watch the movie and participate in the seminar.
Organization and Population
The proposed project to screen a movie followed by a seminar will be conducted in
partnership with the Girl Scouts, who will serve as the population attending the event. The Girl
Scout troops attending the event will be of ages 11-17 to ensure they comprehend the issue
presented in the movie, are mature enough to handle the information, and garner the leadership
skills provided. Our event targets young women ages 11 to 17 because this particular age group
encompasses the origination of the confidence gap. Many girls emerge from adolescence with a
poor self-image, relatively low expectations from life and much less confidence in themselves
and their abilities (Daley, 1991). A study of 3,000 children conducted by the American
Association of University Women, found that at the age of 9 a majority of girls were confident,
but by the time these girls reached high school, less than a third of the girls retained this
confidence. We have chosen to target an audience that falls within the margins of the confidence
gap with hopes that the information on inequality and the empowerment we provide may help
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girls who lack confidence to learn to value themselves and their abilities. It is important that we
target this adolescent age group so that we have a chance to increase the girls confidence and
decrease the gap in confidence between adolescent boys and girls before they reach the
tribulations of adulthood (Daley, 1991).
Girl Scouts is the chosen organization to participate in the project because of similarities
between their purpose, and the purpose of the project. Girl Scouts withholds a mission of
building girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place (Girl
Scouts of the United States of America, 2016). The organization directly targets short term goals
of confidence and leadership building in school and early child-hood environments, in order to
foster long term impact in their future careers (Girl Scouts of the United States of America,
2014). Angela Halleck, a current member of Girl Scouts and member of 12 years, outlined
similar goals and values of the organization. Girl Scouts taught her new communication skills
and gave her the ability to cope with all kinds of people she may encounter. Over the years, Girl
Scouts opened [her] up to a lot of new community problems and events and allowed her to
know about the world and whats happening and who needs help (Halleck, 2016).
Participation in this event would help to inform Girl Scouts about Middle Eastern gender
inequality, and teach them further skills to deal with inequality they may experience in their
futures. Empowerment from the movie and seminar will be both useful in their present lives, and
applicable as they grow older. The projects purpose of information and empowerment directly
ties into the mission of the Girl Scouts, helping to make the event one that is memorable, but in
conjunction with their current projects.
Impact
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The proposed target is aimed at providing short and long term effects for the Girl Scout
audience. In the short term, the goal of the project is to make the issue of gender discrimination
in the Middle East resonate with the girls, and get them thinking about discrimination they
experience in their environment. The movie will impact the girls in the short term because the
audience will immediately be informed of the issue of gender inequality and be able to draw
similarities and differences between their life and Wadjdas life in the movie. We will measure
the level of comprehension and comparison following the movie through a question, answer, and
discussion session in which the girls will be able to elaborate on the comparisons they drew and
be able to reflect upon their own situation.
The seminar will be the agent of providing long term impact for the girls. Through
empowering discussions and activities, girls will be taught skills that they can not only use in the
short term, but in the future as well. Following the movie discussion, my partner and I will delve
into explanation of inequality and its sources in Saudi Arabia and the United States. Discussion
will follow on the topic of empowerment and ways in which the audience can overcome
obstacles. The level of participation and the responses of the participants will allow my partner
and I to assess the level of comprehension and empowerment. After the event a survey will be
sent out to the attendees to measure progress they have made on overcoming the boundaries and
parts of the event that have aided them in overcoming inequality.
As a result of our event my partner and I hope to close the gap in confidence for young
women by educating them on the inequality that causes their lack in confidence and by
empowering them to feel like they can make a difference and overcome gender inequality in
their own lives. We would love to see a new community where girls feel like they have a voice,
and feel like they can overcome any obstacle that comes their way. Applicable life skills of
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leadership, confidence, and character will stay with them forever, as a result of their Girl Scout
career and this project, and help them stretch and grow in the formative years to come.
Student Service Action Plan
Overview
Empowerment through information; this is the theme that encapsulates the entire project,
and that is vital to those near and far, the local and international community. The service event
will be conducted as one event with two main parts: the movie and the seminar.
Part one, the movie, consists of an introduction of the topic to the audience of Girl Scouts
and other viewers of the movie. My partner and I will briefly introduce the topic of Gender
Inequality, specifically inequality in Saudi Arabia, to the audience before the movie is shown in
order to provide background information for the movie and ensure audience comprehension of
the themes within the movie. Wadjda, the movie that will be shown, follows the life of an 11
year old Saudi Arabian girl named Wadjda and her struggle with learning to live with the
constraints and regulations of her Islamic governed society. Throughout the movie Wadjda
begins to learn rules and customs faced by women such as not being able to ride a bike or drive a
car as well as the expectation for women to have multiple children, specifically a son, and take
multiple wives (Al-Mansour, 2014).
Part two, the seminar, consists of theme and topic expansion from the movie by my
partner and I, a question-and-answer portion for the audience, and a leadership discussion. Both
the theme expansion and question-and-answer portion will serve to follow-up on the movie and
ensure audience comprehension. Discussion about the movie and expansion of the inequality
shown in the movie will be conducted before questions are made available under the premise that
discussion will clarify the movie and Middle Eastern inequality. After explanation and
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expansion of the topic, the audience will be able to ask any questions they have left about the
overall theme of inequality, the Middle East, and the movie. My partner and I will also be
providing questions about the movie and inequality in their lives. We hope that questions about
foreign inequality viewed in the movie will prompt and lead into discussion about local
inequality that may be affecting the audiences lives. This will lead into the final component of
the seminar part, which is the leadership discussion. In this part of the forum, the inequality
shown in the movie will be applied to the United States to analyze inequality present on an
everyday basis in the community. Generalized examples of community inequality for women
will be introduced and discussed. As the discussion progresses the audience will be able to
provide examples inequality they have experienced or viewed in the community. Skills such as
perseverance, education, and intelligence will be discussed with the audience in order to cope
with and overcome gender inequality present in the community.
Gender inequality in the Middle East is a difficult problem to solve. Inequality in the
Middle East is historically and religiously based, therefore no immediate remedy is available to
fix the problem, especially from outsiders of the religion and region. Instead the service project
will take both an indirect and direct approach to address the problem. The service project is
indirect because it is not actually solving the problem of gender inequality in the Middle East,
but is instead raising awareness to the problem. The direct impact of the service project is that
the situation from afar in the Middle East will be used to educate the local St. Marys County
community about their own inequality, and teach them how to cope with it.
The project is specific to our topic of gender inequality in the Middle East because it is
informing the local community about gender inequality in the Middle Eastern region and is
relating sources of inequality in the Middle East to inequality in the United States, specifically
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St. Marys County. The goal of this information and application is to empower young women to
overcome inequality in their own lives. This project will inform young women in St. Marys
County of not only the situation in the Middle East, but their own situation, as well. Female
empowerment is able to occur if the next generation is aware of lurking inequality they may face
and if they have the skills to overcome the inequality they learned about. It is our goal to provide
the audience with access to these skills so that they may make the most of their situation and
overcome inequality presented to them. Information that is made available to the audience of
Girl Scouts will be presented with the hope that the information of inequality faced by their
counterparts in the Middle East can be coupled with leadership skills to empower the girls at a
young age. Empowered young women are an intricate and important part of a functional society
because they balance society with a new perspective and bring ideas unavailable from the
craniums of males. We want this event to inspire young women to change the world realistically,
one step at a time, tearing down the wall of inequality between them and their dreams.
Skills and Responsibilities
This service event will require specific skills if it is to be performed in the best way
possible. My partner and I must be able to manage our time and stick to deadlines, speak in front
of large audiences at the event, comprehend and have passion for the topic, and be able to
analyze a movie. These skills may have to adjust and be expanded throughout the presentation
because situations could arise in which we may not know the answers to a question or
assertation.
Required Resources
Our event is largely discussion based, but some resources will still need to be acquired.
The movie, Wadjda, will have to be bought to be shown at the event. Additionally, a place to

show the movie will have to be set. The proposed location for the movie screening is the
Leonardtown High School Media Center. The event will have to be monitored by our mentor,
Brian Byrnes, and supervisor, Tracy Harding. Girl Scout leaders will be in attendance to
accompany their troops.
Logistics
Timeline.
Buy movie on Amazon (week of March 6-13 2016)

o Arrival by Thursday, March 10, 2016
Watch movie (Friday, March 11, 2016)
Come up with questions for the event (March 12, 2016)
Reserve Leonardtown High School Media Center by March 14, 2016
Make flyer with information about the event by March 15, 2016
o Get approval for the flyer by March 16, 2016
o Send the flyer to the Girl Scout Troop Leaders by March 17, 2016
Create presentation (ongoing March to May)
Practice presentation and work on last minute details (March to May)
Date. 21 May 2016

Place. Leonardtown High School Media Center
Contacts.
Girl Scout Troop Leader
Auditorium Supervisor
GIS Administrator, Deborah Dennie
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Brian Byrnes, mentor
Activites.
Discussion about:
o The movie
o Gender deficit in the Middle East
o Gender inequality in the United States and community
o Empowerment and skills to overcome inequality
Pre-Movie Questions
o What makes people unequal?
o Do you know anything about how women in the Middle East are treated?
After-Movie Questions
o Did you like the movie? Why?
o What are some things that you learned?
o What are some differences between Wadjdas life and your life?
o How are girls and boys treated differently or similarly in the movie?
o Compare Saudi Arabia and the United States.
o What are some sources, if any, of inequality in your life?
Leadership Discussion
o What character traits make a good leader?
o The audience will divide into groups and create a list of leadership attributes.
After devising a list, the groups will collaborate on the leadership traits and
compile them into one list.
Path Activity
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o Students will create groups of at least two people. One member of each group
should be designated to close their eyes. The other members must
cooperatively work together using leadership attributes to guide the blind
member of their group on a path created with tape on the floor. At the end of
the activity, groups will be able to measure the success of their leadership
skills by the blind persons proximity to the actual path. This activity should
incorporate the use of leadership skills for both the blind and visual members
of each group because the blinded person must follow directions and trust the
groups judgement, while the visual group members must be able to delegate
responsibility and give directions.
Reflection and Analysis of Project
Successes and Struggles of Implementation
With any project comes success and failures, unplanned circumstances, and achievement
from both those running the event, and participating in it. Before the event could even take
place, my partner and I encountered our first struggle: the Girl Scout audience we had planned
on as participants in the event could not attend. In order for the proposed population to not show
up, there must have been some sort of flaw in the marketing of the event, even though we did
market the event in several different ways to the Girl Scout organization. If we were to perform
this event again, my partner and I would focus on increasing marketing for the event to our target
population. For instance, instead of solely using online communication, we could send a paper
invitation in the mail or meet with the Girl Scout leaders face to face in one of the monthly
service unit meetings.
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We began the marketing process three months before the event was set to take place. We
created a flyer that detailed an overview of our event, the time, location, and contact information.
The flyer was then attached to an email that explained the event in more depth with research to
provide event legitimacy. When the Girl Scout leaders did not respond to the first email, we sent
a second email two weeks before the event was scheduled to occur. The second email was much
shorter and was designed to remind the organization of our date and ask for attendance an
additional time. Again, the local Girl Scout organization did not respond to the email, leaving us
with no audience for our event.
To compensate for the lack of audience in our project, my partner and I drafted an email
to the National Honor Society and Student Council Association of Leonardtown High School.
Both organizations responded to the email the next day with admiration for the event, and
allowed our event to count as credit for members of their organizations. By allowing the event to
count as a credited event, the organizations created an incentive for high school members to
come to our event. Having incentives and members of different organizations helped make our
event even more of a success because not only did we gain attendance, but we reached a
population that would have otherwise not attended the event. As a result, our message of gender
inequality reached a more diverse audience, helping to create a larger impact on community
awareness.
Objectives
The goal of our project was to increase awareness of global and local gender inequality,
as well as empower community members to overcome barriers of inequality. Even though our
target audience did not attend, the objectives of our project were still met with the modified
population. Students were informed about inequality in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, through
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watching the film and follow-up explanation from my partner and I of the regulations faced by
the women in the movie. Emphasis was put on the fact that even though the inequality facing the
women in the movie may seem foreign, inequality is still present in the United States, and more
importantly the community.
Additionally, a goal of the project was to empower the audience and the community. To
meet this objective, we conducted leadership discussions and a path-following activity. Though
the discussion met the objective because participants were provided leadership information that
could assist in overcoming gender inequality, the empowerment path activity could have targeted
the goal better. The goal of the activity was to help the audience apply the leadership discussion
to an immediate activity, however, it was hard for the audience to see the connection.
Participants agreed that the purpose of the activity was unknown and would have liked to
understand the reasoning behind the path activity. If we conducted the event again, we would
have explained the purpose of the activity and its connection to empowerment at the end of the
activity.
Sustainability
Overall, the service event was successful, in both understanding and empowerment,
however, sustainability can only be predicted in limited amounts. Information about gender
inequality was provided to the audience, and should remain in their knowledge base.
Understanding the problem is a sustainable part of the event because the information about
gender inequality has been taught to the audience. Sustainable empowerment, however, can only
be hypothesized. Characteristics of a good leader were explored and performed in the
empowerment discussion and activity. My partner and I hope that the audience will apply the
empowerment advice and tools to their everyday life, but living empowered is a choice, so the
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empowerment sustainability is in the hands of the participants. One can choose to defeat their
obstacles or fall short of the barriers.
Conclusion
Gender inequality is a problem. Whether the location is Saudi Arabia or the United
States, inequality looms in society, in politics, in cultural habits, in the economy. From afar, the
inequality may spread branches of similarity among states in the global community, but upon
closer inspection, one can easily find the differences between the roots of inequality in each of
the global states. To understand inequality, people must be precept to understand its source, and
most importantly, how to overcome it. That is the goal of our project. This paper focuses on
educating society of impending and already present gender inequality as well as providing a
service event to aide in overcoming inequality they may never have known existed. We utilized
tools such as a movie, leadership discussion, and empowerment activity to both educate the
audience about the gap in gender equality as well as empower them to defeat obstacles of
inequality.
Closing the gender gap does not end with our service event. Things can be done by other
people, my partner and I, to further our methodology of closing the gap. For future advocacy,
my partner and I plan to partner with another capstone group that focused on female depression
to create a collective Female Leaders of the World (FLOW) society in schools around the
county. The other group focused their service project on building relationships and self-esteem,
while we centered our event around empowerment, so partnership would create a balanced
educational, creative, empowered environment for the participants. Future events would include
new empowerment activities and discussions that would encourage participants to carry new
knowledge of inequality, coping mechanisms, and confidence beyond the event, and into their

lives, where they can use their newly acquired skills to lead the United States and the world
forward.
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Reference
Al-Mansour, H., Paul, R., Meixner, G., Alkahtani, A., Mohammed, W., Abdullah, R., Ahd, ., ...
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (Firm),. (2014). Wadjda.
This movie is the movie we have chosen to show at our empowerment seminar. The
movie shows regulations and rules faced by women in Saudi Arabia and the current
social expectations for childbirth and marriage. Gender inequality is shown through the
lens of a little girl and learning the rules, as well as an adult female immersed in the
social climate. We would like to use this movie as an introduction to inequality and as a
way for the seminar participants to view common Saudi Arabian life. This movie is
credible because it was made by the first female Saudi Arabian filmmaker. The director
understood the social climate and society of the Kingdom from living her entire life in the
Kingdom.
Al-Munajjid, S. M. (2015, December 25). Women & men praying difference. Retrieved April
12, 2016, from
http://www.islamicislamic.com/women_praying.htm#1._WOMEN_&_MEN_PRAYING
_DIFFERENCE_
Sheikh M. S. Al-Munajjid is a prominent Saudi Arabian Muslim author and lecturer. He
has written books on Islamic jurisprudence and the Islamic belief system. This article
was helpful because it outlined specific worshipping differences between male and
females in the mosque. The source detailed the appropriate dress, gestures, and location
the women should be in when attending the mosque. This source will help to clarify
differences between men and women within the religion that supposedly finds them
equivalent.
42
Al-Rasheed, M. (2013). A most masculine state: Gender, politics and religion in Saudi Arabia.
New York, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Author Madawi Al-Rasheed is a Professor of Anthropology of Religion at Kings College
London. Al-Rasheeds book provides deep insight into the intricate workings of Saudi
Arabian society. He explored the impact of Islam on the nation as a whole, inclusive of
the women, government, and societal customs. Islamic tradition was outlined as an
important contributor to female conditions in Saudi. The experiences of the women were
broken down into educational and political rights and downfalls faced by women in Saudi
Arabian society. Both the historical lack of rights and the modern fight for rights through
activism were explored by the author.
Bernard, J. (1987). The female world from a global perspective. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana
University Press.
Author Jesse Bernard was a sociologist and feminist scholar who explored the female
roles over her lifetime. Bernard spent time educating at University of Minnesota,
Washington University in St. Louis, Lindenwood College, and Pennsylvania State
University. Bernard evaluated the generalized position and circumstances faced by
women. Not characteristic of a specific country, Bernard generalized plight experienced
by women as a whole, and sought to paint a picture of the everyday expectations women
faced, or currently face in their given country. Similarities were drawn between the
circumstances and amount of equality beheld by women of many countries. In particular,
the progression of Saudi womens rights through the separate but equal system was
examined. Details from this book may prove to be good for making general statements
about females in an introduction, and provided an improvement policy Saudi has already
43
enacted. This source detailed ways in which women get around restrictions of movement
in order to socialize with one another. Women are now meeting in banks, the only place
other than their house where they can unveil completely.
Brodfuehrer, J. (2016, January 24). Gender inequality in the workplace [personal interview].
Jennifer Brodfuehrer has a bachelors degree in elementary education, urban education,
and sociology as well as a masters degree in curriculum and instruction. Brodfuehrer
presented an alternate view of gender inequality faced in the United States. Suggesting
inequality varies by workplace and tends to be less when women are in high
concentration in a specific sector, Brodfuehrer presents an alternate female opinion,
helping to create a less biased view of gender inequality in the United States.
Byrnes, B. (2016, January 21). Islam over time [personal interview].
Bryan Byrnes has Masters in Ancient and Classical Studies, is certified as a teacher, and
is a Leonardtown High School AP World History teacher. Byrnes presented information
on Islam, its teachings, and the religions evolution throughout time. His information
provided a connection between Sharia law in Saudi Arabia and Muhammeds earliest
teachings as well as the importance of the teachings to those who subscribe to the
religion.
Click, R. (2016, February 20). Human trafficking service project [personal interview].
Rosie Click is a 2014 graduate of the Leonardtown High School Global International
Studies program. Click conducted her service project on human trafficking and applied it
to the community with a movie. Click revealed the details of her event, its success, and
recommendations for our project. Her interview allowed us to use her project as a model
for our service event later this year.
44
Coleman, I. (2010). Paradise beneath her feet: How women are transforming the Middle East.
New York, New York: Random House.
Author Isobel Coleman is the Senior Fellow and Director of the Civil Society, Markets,
and Democracy Initiative and is Director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program. As
a whole, in her book Coleman highlighted the progression and work towards future gains
for womens rights in the Middle East. The rise of Islamic feminism and its components
were examined. In addition, western views on not only Islamic feminism, but the status
of Middle Eastern women as a whole was displayed, information that may be useful to
use as a comparison of female rights in the Middle East to rights in America. Besides the
general emersion of Islamic feminism, particular rights held by Saudi women and the
influence of Islam was provided. The current status of women in all areas including job
type was presented, followed by reform measures currently being taken by Syria improve
the status of their women.
Cox, K., Global Girls Collaborative Project, & Microsoft. (2016). Big Dream Movement.
Retrieved February 16, 2016, from http://www.bigdreammovement.com/
Lead by Microsoft, the Global Girls Collaborative Project, and Kelly Cox, representative
of Iron Way Films, this source provided insight into a project working to empower young
women through audio and visual. Similar to my service event, the Big Dream Movement
is utilizing a movie about struggling women to inform and empower those who watch it.
This movement and its success will be able to serve as an activity model for my service
event because of the similarity of topic and event strategy.
45
Daley, S. (1991, January 9). Little girls lose their self-esteem way to adolescence, study finds.
Retrieved May 15, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/09/education/little-girlslose-their-self-esteem-way-to-adolescence-study-finds.html
This article detailed the gap in confidence between adolescent girls and boys between
elementary school and high school. The article cited statistics from a study conducted by
the American Association of University Women, which explained a trend in decreased
confidence from age 9 to high school ages in girls. The article later outlined possible
racial cleavages within the confidence gap in girls, because it was found that black
adolescent girls had more confidence than their white and Hispanic counterparts. This
source will prove fruitful to my research and project because it explains the reasoning
behind my partner and Is selection of girls ages 11 to 17 to attend our empowerment
seminar.
Do men really make more money than women? [Digital image]. (2016). Retrieved May 4, 2016,
from http://www.payscale.com/gender-lifetime-earnings-gap
This source is credible because it is an infographic that comes from Pay Scale, a
statistical information source dedicated to achieving a fair salary. This infographic and
article was helpful because it visually showed the difference in male and female salaries,
as well as explained the reasons as to why they are different. I will be able to use this
source to highlight the prominence of gender inequality in the United States.
Gender differences in presidential voting: 1976-1988 [picture]. (1992, March). SIRS Decades.
Retrieved from
http://decades.sirs.com/decadesweb/decades/do/articleSource?urn=urn:sirs:US;ARTICLE
;ART;0000238608&offset=1
46
Even after women achieved the vote, discrepancies arose between the tendencies of the
two sexes. Though the gap in voting preference according to gender is not due to
inequality, it reveals female preference at the time and gives the reader insight into the
potential issues women were concerned with. This source is important because it
displays voting differences in a graph so that the reader can see how women were
different in terms of voting from men. The female stance in politics helps to connect
common stances on issues during the time, such as the pro-choice stance regarding
pregnancy. Traditionally democrats have been in favor of this policy, creating a possible
connection or reason as to why women were voting this way. As a result, this source
proves valuable because of its connection to important topics for women at the time. This
source is credible because it is a primary source regarding quantitative data that was
collected.
Girl Scouts of the United States of America. (2014, October 22). What does Girls Scouts do for
you? Retrieved February 16, 2016, from http://www.girlscouts.org/en/about-girlscouts/research.html
The Girls Scouts created this video to outline the organizations goals and motivations for
its actions. The video provided insight into values held deeply by the Girl Scouts and
ways in which these values are executed. In addition to their website this source
provided a link between the values considered to be important by the Girl Scouts and the
mission of our service event. The video also outlined short and long term goals of the
organization. It is a credible source because it was a video created by the Girl Scouts to
provide information on their organization.
47
Girl Scouts of the United States of America. (2016). Who We Are - Girl Scouts. Retrieved
February 16, 2016, from http://www.girlscouts.org/en/about-girl-scouts/who-we-are.html
The Girl Scouts of America created this source to provide information on their
organization. With the audience of our service event consisting of Girl Scout Troops, this
source proved relevant on highlighting the purpose and mission on the Girl Scouts as an
organization. This source reaffirmed the choice of having Girl Scouts attend the movie
seminar because of the link between Girl Scout values, and the mission of the service
event. It led to exploration of organization and service event similarities and provided
and served as proof as to the link of why we chose this organization to participate in our
event.
Global gender gap report 2015. (2015). World Economic Forum. Retrieved January 11, 2016,
from http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2015/rankings/
This source was originally discovered within the book, A Most Masculine State: Gender,
Politics and Religion in Saudi Arabia. However, the data was outdated from 2010. In
order to gain a better picture of Saudi Arabia and the United States, rank data for 2015
was found on the publishers website. This source was important because it allowed a
numerical comparison to be made regarding the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United
States. Sometimes, comparisons are hard to make between information, so the numerical
rankings show the reader just how diverse the two countries are. This website and
publisher, The World Economic Forum, is credible because of the use of these rankings
in many print sources and the quantitative data it contains. In addition, the staff at the
World Economic Forum is composed of individuals from many different countries and
strategic partner associates.
48
Halleck, A. (2016, April 12). Value of the Girl Scout organization [personal interview].
Angela Halleck is a current member of Girl Scouts and has been a member for 12 years.
Since she has remained dedicated to the organization over the years, she was interviewed
because she understands not only the goals of Girl Scouts but how Girl Scouts themselves
demonstrate these goals in the community. Halleck talked about the aspects of the Girl
Scout program that she values. I hope to use this interview to prove why the Girl Scout
audience is optimal for attending our service event.
Harding, T. (2016, January 11). Rights in the United States of America [personal interview].
Harding has a degree in psychology and a teaching certification. Harding presented
intricate information regarding civil rights and liberties held by all Americans in the
United States. After presenting the rights that exist, specifically rights in several
amendments to the United States Constitution, she explained how they were used to
lessen the gender gap. Her insight proved valuable in connecting rights and the gender
gap between the United States and Saudi Arabia.
Harris, A. (1990). A womans wage: Historical meanings and social consequences. Lexington,
Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky.
Author Alice Kessler-Harris is a Professor of American History at Columbia University.
Harris examined equality opportunities in all areas for women in the United States.
Economic opportunity through unequal pay and maldistribution of jobs are characteristics
of the United States gender gap that can be compared to the situation being faced in Saudi
Arabia. Past circumstance faced by American women in all aspects of their life was put
forth, and the reciprocal consequences of the inequality in society was examined. Harris
linked gender inequality with specific aspects of society and the family, a link that can be
49
compared to Saudi Arabia to show similarities and differences between two markedly
different societies; one believed to have freedom, and the other to have despair.
Kechichian, J. (2008). Faisal: Saudi Arabias king for all seasons. Gainesville, Florida:
University of Florida Press.
Kechichian, a political scientist at the King Faisal center for research in Saudi Arabia,
elaborated on the works completed by King Faisal in Saudi Arabia during his rule.
Before the introduction of girls education, there were both advocators and people who
opposed it. King Faisal played a large role in the introduction of girls schooling. This
source was useful because it gave insight into King Faisal and his reasoning for
supporting education, and helped to explain why the state wanted to push female
education so much.
Leiby, E. (1933, May 10). Traditional image of women in the home [Letter to Franklin Delano
Roosevelt].
In 1933, Early Leiby of Akron Ohio wrote to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the then current
president of the United States, about the role of women in the 1930s. Leiby presented an
alternate opinion of gender inequality being faced in America. Instead of pleading for
increased womens rights, Leiby argued that it was the womens fault for their husbands
unemployment. Leiby argued that women were tearing apart their households through
employment outside of the home. Presenting the male, traditionalist opinion, Leibys
letter helps to create a less biased view of the equality difference between men and
women. This letter helped to create a better view of the inequality for women because it
was the opposite opinion from what was presented in many of the more feminist sources.
50
This source is credible because it was a primary source document, or letter, that was
written directly to Franklin Roosevelt, former President of the United States.
McDowall, A. (2015, December 12). Saudi Arabian women vote for the first time in local
elections. World News Digest. http://wnd.infobaselearning.com/wnd-reutersarticle.aspx?id=249734&rturl=Search+Results&search=Saudi+Arabia&option=1&oper=
1&umbtype=1
For many years, Saudi Arabian women have lacked voting rights, keeping them
subordinate to men. This database explored the new components of voting for women in
Saudi Arabia. Though this is a recently attained right for the women, not all Saudi
Arabians agree with the new measure. This database explored the different Saudi
Arabian sentiments about voting and how women are being treated by the groups that
agree with their rights, and the groups that do not. This article is credible because of the
inside that author Angus McDowall was able to gain. Angus McDowall is a British
freelance reporter who spent time living in Tehran.
Nazir, S. (2005). Saudi Arabia. In T. Leigh (Ed.), Womens rights in the Middle East and North
Africa: citizenship and justice (pp. 257-274). Lanham, Maryland: Roman & Littlefield.
Author Sameena Nazir, Director of Survery of Womens Rights in the Middle East and
North Africa, broke down the rights of women into categories such as access to justice,
political voice, and personal rights. In each section, the rights that are currently obtained
by women were expressed. After current Saudi Arabian policy was stated, the author
gave recommendations for improving policy in all areas that would help to increase
womens rights. This source was especially helpful because it assigned a numerical value
between one and five to Saudi Arabia for each category of rights. In addition, at the
51
beginning of the book, Nazir organized the numbers assigned to each Middle Eastern
country into graphs by type of right. As a result, a numerical visual comparing all Middle
Eastern states was available, and made understanding the depth of the gender gap in
Saudi Arabia discernable.
Official program of the woman suffrage procession [picture]. (1913). SIRS Decades. Retrieved
from
;ART;0000207820&offset=1
Women who participated in the suffrage movement did not sit around and wait to achieve
suffrage. Instead, the women went out and held events such as demonstrations and
processions to spread awareness about their issue and goals. This source provided an
original view into what a demonstration may have looked like and what it was all about.
The program gives a visual of the information as to what the movement was doing,
helping the reader to better grasp the female stake in America in their issue and
understand the longevity of their topic. This source is credible because it is a primary
source originating from the Library of Congress.
Phillipps, D., Rosenberg, M. (2015). All combat roles now open to women, defense secretary
says. Retrieved May 04, 2016, from
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/us/politics/combat-military-women-ashcarter.html?_r=1
This source is credible because it is a source that quotes and details the announcement
given by Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter to integrate females into all military roles.
This was a helpful source because it made me aware of the current participation status of
52
women in the military. I will be able to use this source to show the progression of
womens military rights beginning in the twentieth century until present day.
Reagan, R. (1986, September 22). Public Paper of Ronald ReaganProclamation 5532
American Business Womens Day, 1986. World Book Advanced. Retrieved from
http://www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/presidential?id=pp332828&st=proclamation
+5532
This source provides insight into economic progression of women over time. Ronald
Reagan gave details as to how women have been assisted in achieving this equality,
through scholarships from the American Business Womens Association. Reagan issued
this proclamation to notify the United States as a whole as to the progression women
have made, and provided possible recommendations to women on how to continue their
advancement of rights. This source is vital because it gives a presidents insight into the
economic progression of rights women have made. The source is credible because it is a
Presidential paper released by President Ronald Reagan.
Riyadh. (2012, May 29). S Arabia may begin recruiting women. Retrieved April 17, 2016, from
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/s-arabia-may-begin-recruitingwomen.aspx?pageID=238
Hrriyet is a leading news source in Turkey and the Middle Eastern region. Although
this article was written in 2012, it reveals minor details of the governments plan to
explore female involvement in the military. Saudi Arabia is making gains in womens
rights slowly, which is revealed by the date of this article. This source was helpful
because it provided information about the level of female involvement in the Saudi
Arabian military. Though it showed that women have no participation, it also revealed
53
government progress towards eventual integration. The source shows that while Saudi
Arabia is making gains, the process is slow, and women still remain largely unequal to
their male counterparts.
Saudi Arabia. (2015, November 19). Retrieved October 28, 2015, from
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sa.html
CIA World Fact book provided statistics taken in 2015 by the Central Intelligence
Agency that highlighted gender differences in Saudi Arabia between men and women.
Statistics such as unemployment made the inequality and differences between the male
and female social strata apparent with numbers. The fact book also provided short
insight into the relationship between citizenship and religion, as a means of explaining
why the majority of the population in Saudi Arabia is Muslim. The short insight
provided by fact book helped to connect the statistics provided to the actual affairs in the
country.
Saudi Arabia (2016). CultureGrams Online Edition. ProQuest. Retrieved from
http://online.culturegrams.com/world/world_country.php?cid=139&cn=Saudi_Arabia
Culture grams offered a brief description of gender relations and roles in Saudi Arabia.
The database applied the gender roles with and within the home and gave basic
restrictions faced by the women. In addition, the database gave an explanation of Islam
and how it is applied in the context of Saudi Arabia. The relationship between the
religion and the rules faced by women was explained. This source is credible because it
was taken from a database that holds information and statistics concerning many
countries throughout the world.
54
Uber offers free lifts to women voting for first time in a Saudi election. (2015, December 11).
Issues & Controversies.
http://icof.infobaselearning.com/icofnewstopic.aspx?reutersID=249761&sr=1
In Saudi Arabia, there are several things women, both Saudi Arabian and foreign, are not
allowed to do. This database provided a few rules that Saudi women must follow, and
how they are overcoming the rules to exercise their new right to vote. The source
explained the challenges faced by women in accessing their right to vote. This source is
credible because it was taken from a database that holds articles with controversy and
differing opinions, which makes sure the article is less biased, and better-rounded.
United States of America: family (2016). CultureGrams Online Edition. ProQuest. Retrieved
from
http://online.culturegrams.com/world/world_country_sections.php?cid=169&cn=United_
States_of_America&sname=Family&snid=11
Gender roles in Saudi Arabia are very different from those of the roles of women in
America. This source offered both the traditional roles of women in America as well as
some emerging trends in American society. This source is important to research because
it offered a non-biased description of the current role of women in America. Some of the
explanations of family life and trends such as gay marriage and single parents help to
create an explanation for difference of roles between Saudi Arabia and the United States.
This source is credible because it was taken from a database that holds information on
many countries in the world.
55
Votes for Women! (1912). SIRS Decades. Retrieved from

;ART;0000207987&offset=1
Over the course of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, women fought for
their right to vote. Though a long struggle, women eventually accomplished their goal
through the use of tools such as printed material and explanation. This source provided a
direct textual insight to the reasoning behind the votes that the women were fighting for.
The womens fight for rights became much more realistic with this source because their
reasoning behind why women deserved the vote was laid out. This source is credible
because it is a primary source document from the National American Woman Suffrage
Association. The source presented a direct insight into the female point of view in
America, revealing why they held a stake in the problem.
Which One of These WAC Jobs Would You Like? (1943). SIRS Decades. Retrieved from
;ART;0000213090&offset=1
As women began moving out of the house in search of work, jobs in the military were
often taken as means for support. Especially around times of war, women began flocking
to the military in support of the war effort while their men were gone. This article proved
a good source because it gave a list of possible job options available to women at the time
in the Womens Army Corps. This source is an excellent example of how jobs and job
types were opening up for women in many different fields, including the military. In the
Womens Army Corps, women had access to medical, personnel, physical science, and
food preparation jobs, just to list a few. The article gives a visual representation of what
56
the expansion of rights for women looked like. This source is credible because it is a
primary source document used by the WAC to gain female interest, and was by the
database from the National Archives and Record Administration.
Women in the Military. (2007, May 29). Issues and Controversies. Retrieved from
http://icof.infobaselearning.com/articles/rights-and-liberties/women-in-themilitary.aspx?sr=1&articleID=2620
Women in the United States face different kinds of inequality than those of Saudi Arabia.
In the United States, women are discriminated against in the armed forces, however they
are allowed to have some jobs. Women in the United States are fighting for zero
discrimination in the military even though they have already made partial gains since
World War II. Though women in the United States have limited discrimination, they still
face less discrimination than women in Saudi Arabia. This source serves as a good
comparison between the rights of women in Saudi Arabia and women in the United
States. This source is credible because it was taken from a database that prevents each
side of controversial topics.
Womens Pro-Choice March [picture]. (1969). SIRS Decades. Retrieved from
;ART;0000217760&offset=1
Women have been enduring an ongoing fight for their own rights since the creation of the
United States in the late eighteenth century. By the 1960s, women were still fighting
this fight, only this time for the right to their own body through abortion. This database
provided a picture of an abortion march and a brief explanation as to why the march was
relevant. While many people know that this fight occurred, they were not there to
57
witness it. This source is vital to catering to the visual side of understanding because it
shows readers what the female fight to rights looked like. This source is credible because
it is a primary source that provides insight from exactly the date that the event took place.
58
Appendix A
Scale of Scores for Saudi Arabia from Nazir (2005)s Womens Rights in the Middle East and
North Africa: Citizenship and Justice
Scale of 1 to 5: 1 represents the lowest and 5 the highest level of freedom women have to
exercise their rights

Appendix B
Womens Pro-Choice March (1969)
59

Appendix C
Votes For Women! (1912)
60

Appendix D
Official Program for the Woman Suffrage Procession (1913)
61

Appendix E
Which One of These WAC Jobs Would You Like (1943)
62

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respond with clapping (Al-Munajjid, 2015).

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Buy movie on Amazon (week of March 6-13 2016)

Watch movie (Friday, March 11, 2016)

Come up with questions for the event (March 12, 2016)

Reserve Leonardtown High School Media Center by March 14, 2016

Create presentation (ongoing March to May)

Practice presentation and work on last minute details (March to May)

Date. 21 May 2016

Girl Scout Troop Leader

GIS Administrator, Deborah Dennie

GENDER INEQUALITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Brian Byrnes, mentor

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