La nationalisation des emplois au prisme du genre

• Main Author: Amélie Le Renard
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centre Français d’Archéologie et de Sciences Sociales de Sanaa 2013-04-01
• Series: Arabian Humanities
• Subjects: gender; nation; femininity; intersectionality; sociology of work and organizations; women's work
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/cy/2023

This article based on interviews with bank employees in Riyadh deals with nationalizing jobs from a gender perspective. Nationalization policies aim at replacing foreign employees by male and female nationals. I argue that nationalization policies transform and reconfigure hierarchies of gender, class and nationality and contribute to shaping new norms of femininity. More specifically, I analyze the organizational shaping of national professional femininities in the banking sector. I explore four aspects. First, due to gender segregation, some Saudi women were hired in women-only branches beginning from the 1980s; with nationalization policies, some women were hired in mixed departments but most of them work non-managerial positions. Second, banks select Saudi women based on specific profiles, especially those who speak English. Third, once hired, they meet obstacles as women and as Saudis and feel they have to work harder in order to acquire credibility. Fourth, they are subjected to specific gender norms that impact their self-presentation and behaviour and create constraints and pressures if they want to move up in the hierarchy.