Back to The Future: Saudi Women Negotiating Gender Inclusion

In this article, we develop an understanding of the practice of inclusion based on employees’ perceptions of the interplay of institutional and organizational norms. Based on data from 56 in-depth interviews with Saudi Arabian working women, we elaborate on these notions of gender inclusion and identity dynamics in a non-Western setting, where women are part of a first generation to enter the workforce. Our core question is how women make their way in organizations with different levels of inclusion policies and practices. Findings show that women use various approaches to negotiate and navigate inclusion in relation to their employers and majority groups and practices, grounded in specific societal and cultural identities based on religion and tribe. Our study makes two main contributions. First, in applying existing frameworks of inclusion across different organization contexts, we provide additional insights into how policies and practices lead to different organizational inclusion orientations and their effect on women relatively new to a workforce. Second, we highlight that current theories of workplace inclusion need to move beyond organizational efforts and focus on ways in which individuals actively negotiate workplace inclusion in context. We find that women’s work identity works as a means by which women challenge or perpetuate exclusion in the face of societal, organizational, and managerial influences.