IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsoctx/v13y2023i4p88-d1113638.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sources of Wellbeing Amongst Saudi Arabian Women Academic Leaders: An Explorative Study

Author

Listed:
  • Rasis Alanazi

    (Department of Psychology, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh 11564, Saudi Arabia)

  • Claire Alkouatli

    (Educational Futures, University of South Australia, Adelaide 5000, Australia)

Abstract

Although Saudi Arabian women increasingly attain leadership positions in a national reform movement, few studies have examined their wellbeing during this time of cultural change. Contributing to filling this gap, we engaged ten Saudi women academic leaders in semi-structured interviews, inquiring into their perspectives on wellbeing. Three thematic sources of wellbeing—ecological building blocks, spiritual wellsprings, and eudaimonic motivations—highlight that these Saudi women leaders are drawing from varied sources, from skydiving or culturally unique iterations of ‘me time’ to socio-spiritual activities and relationships. The women identified stresses including balancing ageing parents and young children with their high-pressure positions and co-workers with outdated mindsets. Describing their work as social contributions, acts of worship, and charitable offerings of knowledge, the women’s voices counter stereotypes while illuminating culturally specific sources of wellbeing across life domains.

Suggested Citation

  • Rasis Alanazi & Claire Alkouatli, 2023. "Sources of Wellbeing Amongst Saudi Arabian Women Academic Leaders: An Explorative Study," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-14, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:13:y:2023:i:4:p:88-:d:1113638
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/13/4/88/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/13/4/88/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Azzah Alsubaie & Karen Jones, 2017. "An Overview of the Current State of Women’s Leadership in Higher Education in Saudi Arabia and a Proposal for Future Research Directions," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-15, October.
    2. Hoda Jradi & Oraynab Abouabbas, 2017. "Well-Being and Associated Factors among Women in the Gender-Segregated Country," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-9, December.
    3. Maleeha Mohammed Zaaf Al-Qahtani & Tarek Tawfik Yousef Alkhateeb & Haider Mahmood & Manal Abdalla Zahed Abdalla & Thikkryat Jebril Obaid Talalah Qaralleh, 2020. "The Role of the Academic and Political Empowerment of Women in Economic, Social and Managerial Empowerment: The Case of Saudi Arabia," Economies, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-19, June.
    4. Ed Diener & Shigehiro Oishi & Louis Tay, 2018. "Advances in subjective well-being research," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 2(4), pages 253-260, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Foliano, Francesca & Tonei, Valentina & Sevilla, Almudena, 2024. "Social restrictions, leisure and well-being," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    2. Ihsana Sabriani Borualogo & Ferran Casas, 2023. "Bullying Victimisation and Children’s Subjective Well-being: A Comparative Study in Seven Asian Countries," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 16(1), pages 1-27, February.
    3. Ekaterina Oparina & Sorawoot Srisuma, 2022. "Analyzing Subjective Well-Being Data with Misclassification," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(2), pages 730-743, April.
    4. Blessing Kanyumba & Melanie Lourens, 2022. "Career development for female academics in Australian and South African universities: An integrative review," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 11(2), pages 391-401, March.
    5. Du, Yao & Sun, Guibo & Heinen, Eva, 2024. "Does subjective wellbeing modify travel behaviour changes among older people in response to a new metro line?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    6. Chunli Wei & Qingqing Li & Ziyi Lian & Yijun Luo & Shiqing Song & Hong Chen, 2022. "Variation in Public Trust, Perceived Societal Fairness, and Well-Being before and after COVID-19 Onset—Evidence from the China Family Panel Studies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-14, September.
    7. Stefan Gruber & Gregor Sand, 2022. "Does Migration Pay Off in Later Life? Income and Subjective Well-Being of Older Migrants in Europe," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 969-988, April.
    8. Abu Elnasr E. Sobaih & Ahmed E. Abu Elnasr, 2024. "Challenges to Cracking the Glass Ceiling among Saudi Women in the Tourism Industry," Tourism and Hospitality, MDPI, vol. 5(1), pages 1-22, March.
    9. Cuizhen Xia & Lihua Zhou & Ya Wang & Xiaodong Pei, 2022. "Tibetan Herders’ Life Satisfaction and Determinants under the Pastureland Rehabilitation Program: A Case Study of Maduo County, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-17, February.
    10. Guadalupe Echeverría & Ornella Tiboni & Loni Berkowitz & Victoria Pinto & Bárbara Samith & Andrea von Schultzendorff & Nuria Pedrals & Marcela Bitran & Chiara Ruini & Carol D. Ryff & Daniele Del Rio &, 2020. "Mediterranean Lifestyle to Promote Physical, Mental, and Environmental Health: The Case of Chile," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-17, November.
    11. Zheng, Xiaoying & Ruan, Chenhan & Zheng, Lei, 2021. "Money or love? The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer life goals and subjective well-being," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 626-633.
    12. Xiangdan Piao & Xinxin Ma & Shunsuke Managi, 2021. "Impact of the Intra-household Education Gap on Wives’ and Husbands’ Well-Being: Evidence from Cross-Country Microdata," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 156(1), pages 111-136, July.
    13. Mouratidis, Kostas, 2021. "How COVID-19 reshaped quality of life in cities: A synthesis and implications for urban planning," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    14. Dwyer, Larry, 2024. "Tourism Degrowth and Resident Well-being," Journal of Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, Cinturs - Research Centre for Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, University of Algarve, vol. 12(3), pages 206-225.
    15. Joana Neto & Marta Pinto da Costa & Félix Neto & Sara Carmel, 2021. "The Will-to-Live Scale: Validity and Reliability Among Portuguese Adolescents," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(4), pages 21582440211, October.
    16. Phil Lignier & Diane Jarvis & Daniel Grainger & Taha Chaiechi, 2024. "Spatial Heterogeneity and Subjective Wellbeing: Exploring the Role of Social Capital in Metropolitan Areas Using Multilevel Modelling," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 25(5), pages 1-23, June.
    17. Xie, Qian-Wen & Luo, Xiangyan & Lu, Shuang & Fan, Xu Li & Li, Shi, 2024. "Household income mobility and adolescent subjective well-being in China: Analyzing the mechanisms of influence," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    18. Qian Xu & Zhe Hou & Chao Zhang & Feng Yu & Tong Li, 2022. "Career Capital and Well-Being: A Configurational Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-10, August.
    19. Mohsen Joshanloo, 2023. "Within-Person Associations Between Subjective Well-Being and Big Five Personality Traits," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(6), pages 2111-2126, August.
    20. Lordan, Grace & Stringer, Eliza-Jane, 2022. "People versus machines: The impact of being in an automatable job on Australian worker’s mental health and life satisfaction," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:13:y:2023:i:4:p:88-:d:1113638. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.