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State Discourses on Women's Empowerment in Qatar: The Ideal Qatari Woman as a Neoliberal Feminist Subject
Abstract
In Qatar, contemporary processes of modern development and social change are deeply impacting women’s engagement in the public sphere and the professional opportunities available to them. In the wake of increased political and economic globalization, Qatari rulers have engaged in focused efforts to facilitate modern development through the implementation of gendered social and economic reforms. The state has taken on an increasingly active role in defining the parameters of women’s engagement in the public sphere and has represented itself as a patron of women’s advancement to domestic and international audiences. State initiatives pressure women to join the workforce to fulfill the state’s national agendas, including its Qatarization and economic diversification goals and the goal of transitioning to a knowledge-based economy. State rhetoric promotes women’s participation in higher education and the workforce, and state-led or state-sponsored initiatives encourage women to pursue new entrepreneurial and professional opportunities. This article analyzes contemporary state discourse on women’s empowerment in Qatar as embodied in state documents, government-run public relations campaigns, and the media output of state-run or state-sanctioned institutions to demonstrate how the Qatari state’s political rhetoric conflates women’s professional advancement with national progress and constructs the ideal Qatari woman as a neoliberal feminist subject. With particular attention to the rhetoric found in the state-run magazine Q Life, the article argues that the Qatari state is promoting a model of women’s empowerment that merges transnational paradigms of neoliberal feminism with nationalist ideals of loyalty and patriotism and presents the ideal “Qatari woman” as a neoliberal feminist subject who contributes to her state’s national development through her own professional development and fulfillment.
Discipline
Political Science
Geographic Area
Qatar
Sub Area
None