Analysis of the Position of Female Entrepreneurs in the Middle East Essay

Analysis of the Position of Female Entrepreneurs in the Middle East - Essay Example In the West, most women compete on equal footing with men. This is because there are laws that are enshrined in the legal codes of most nations in North America and Europe that guarantee the rights of women. It must however, be pointed out that women were also oppressed in the West until the process of emancipation was initiated gradually in the early 21st Century (Stevenson, 2010). Also, the world order has sought to initiate changes and equalities in gender matters since the formation of the United Nations in 1945. However, this appears to be moving at a gradualist pace rather than in a revolutionary patter. In the Middle East though, Nazir and Tomppert identify that there is systematic discrimination that is entrenched and inherent in law, criminal justice, economy, heath care and education that keep women oppressed and limited in what they do (2005). It is identified that the communities in the MENA region maintain a strict patriarchal status (Moghadam, 2007). This is a system wh ereby a woman is seen as weak and as such, the society deems it a necessity for men to protect women from what they perceive to be against the honor of women. Typically, a girl is under the protection of her father. When she becomes a woman, she evolves to the care and protection of her husband. When she raises her children and they grow old, the male children have the duty of protecting their elderly mothers. As such, the progression of women is overshadowed by the fact that they have a unique and different role from men. Although this is often seen by most people in the Middle East and North Africa to be in the best interest of women, it stands in the way of gender equality and promotion of the interests of women and their ability to exercise their free will. Currently, globalization is forcing people in all parts of the world to make changes and harness equality and similar patterns in all aspects of life (Moghadam, 2007). This means that there is the need for women to be given e qual rights and fairness. The king of Saudi Arabia, who by default requires to exercise the highest levels of Islamic purity [his title is the Custodian of the Two Holiest Sites of Islam: Mecca and Medina] has acknowledged that the kingdom's approach to issues like women's right need to change since the world around them is changing gradually (Ramady, 2010). However, for changes to occur meaningfully, there is the need for the financial emancipation of women in the Middle East (Keddie, 2007). This will require a degree of guaranteeing the rights of women to get an earning capacity (Keddie, 2007). Female entrepreneurship is therefore an important and crucial element that needs to be attained through the financial emancipation of women. This is one of the most important ways through which the women of the Middle East and North Africa can catch up with their male counterparts and hasten the move towards the emancipation and equality of women that has been proposed through the current r eforms in Arab and Islamic nations. Based on this background, this research will examine important elements and aspects of female entrepreneurship in the Middle East. This will attempt to diagnose the status quo of female entrepreneurship in the Middle East and figure out the important aspects and elements that has led to these trends. The paper will also examine critical solutions to the issues that would be raised in the study. In attaining these