Unlike 20 years ago, Saudi women are now challenging the lifestyle their mother and grandmothers had adopted and stepping into unprecedented and completely male-dominated fields.
These include Engineering, Law, Aviation and even Nursing. In fact, the latter has started attracting a growing number of young Saudi girls who hope to try their hand at something different.
In the past, the Kingdom has had to rely overwhelmingly on expatriates to fulfill hospitals’ nursing positions but Saudi women have now designated nursing as the next popular career choice, after having made their mark in education and healthcare in general.
Mona Al-Harbi is a 19-year-old second year Makkah resident and nursing student at the Al-Shifa Institute and she told Saudi Gazette that nursing appeals to her because of the huge demand for Saudi nurses in hospitals across the Kingdom. “I chose to study nursing so that I could be sure of finding a job immediately,” she explained. “I don’t want to sit at home unemployed and I’m happy to have chosen a humane profession that helps people in need.”
Al-Harbi remarked that she belongs to an excellent institution that is recommended by both the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education. “I have been studying very well and my English is improving continuously,” she said. “There are labs here to teach students how to deal with physically disabled patients, coma patients and how to clean wounds for instance.” She added that her institute also encourages physical activity and sports like basketball so that the students remain fit and active.
To match this kind of demand, recently a number of private institutions have started training nurses under the supervision of the Ministry of Health but it seems that hospitals prefer the foreign-trained expatriate nurses.
Another issue according to Al-Harbi is a culture of non-acceptance by expatriate colleagues. “We, as Saudi nurses need to be trained under our more experienced colleagues but they are largely unwilling to teach us anything,” she stated.
On a social front, many families are still refusing to let girls join this profession because of the mixed-gender environment and evening shifts. Another young Saudi girl, Rasha Hussain is a 20-year-old science student and claims that she was not given permission to pursue the profession she had always “dreamed about.” “My parents told me that they will always be worried if I spend all night at the hospital,” she explained.
In addition, there is a widespread belief that nursing prevents most girls from getting married to suitable partners since many men think of nursing as menial work and refuse to marry a nurse. Dalal Mohammed was asked to choose between nursing or marriage by her fiancé and claims that she was forced by her parents to choose the latter.
She fares no better than those graduate nurses whose husbands have stopped them from working. Lojaine Adnan, a Saudi nurse at the Military hospital in Jeddah told Saudi Gazette about her refusal to marry a man who asked her to leave the profession. “After long years spent learning and training, I do not want to leave my work because of marriage,” she said. “It does not mean that I am against marriage itself but who knows, maybe God may give me a mature man in the future!”
She too faced problems because of the evening shift. “My family was worried about me spending the night outside the house. Working during the night shift is relaxing because the patients are asleep and there are usually no critical cases so we finish our shift at eight in the morning and can then go home safely.”