Introduction

A significant factor in the growth of nations is the empowerment of women. Building communities depends on the development of the social, spiritual, political, educational, gender, and economic empowerment of individuals. Women’s empowerment must occur within economic, socio-cultural, familial or interpersonal dimensions, and take into account legal, political, and psychological issues (Selamu and Singhe, 2017).

To consider women as empowered, four basic assumptions must first be made:

  1. 1.

    Women are disempowered when compared to the empowerment of men.

  2. 2.

    A third party cannot provide empowerment but could create the conditions favorable to initiating empowerment.

  3. 3.

    The definition of empowerment includes the ability and freedom to make important life decisions.

  4. 4.

    Empowerment is a process, not an end in itself (Mosedale, 2005).

The process of empowerment enables individuals to have influence over entities that affect their daily lives (Wallerstein, 1992). This is achieved through the cooperation of groups who together develop ways to gain greater control over their lives, access their rights, reach their goals, and reduce their own marginalization within society (Maton, 2008). Uner and Turan (2010) suggest that empowerment encompasses “power, control, ability, competence, self-efficacy, autonomy, knowledge, development, and self-determination” all of which contribute towards an individual’s strengthening position in society. Empowerment is an ongoing process that requires the cooperation, participation and mutual respect of groups and communities to work towards improving their life circumstance, gaining greater access to and control over resources they had previously been unable to access or had lacked (Zimmerman, 2010). In 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) states that empowerment is both “a multidimensional social process and a multidimensional social outcome” where individuals and groups improve and gain control over events in their lives (Zani, 2014).

The process of women’s empowerment involves understanding and addressing the issues of gender which hinder women’s development (Longwe, 1998). Women who are empowered are “more aware, politically active, economically productive and independent” and are able to participate more fully in discussion of matters which affect their lives (Gupta, 2018) giving them autonomy and authority to make strategic life choices in settings where this ability was previously denied. An empowered woman has the self-belief to deal with the events, situations, and/or the people she encounters.

The ability to exercise individual choice is based on three interrelated elements—resources, agency, and achievements. Resources are material, human and social expectations and allocations; agency is the ability or sense of ability to define one’s goals, act upon them, and decides on their own strategic life outcomes; achievements are a variety of outcomes ranging from improved well-being to achieving equal representation of women in politics (Huis et al. 2017).

An empowered community is one that comprises empowering and empowered organizations that make efforts towards improving the quality of life of a community’s citizens by providing opportunities for participation and gaining control over the decisions that affect their lives. A truly empowering community boasts accessible resources for all its residents. It is worth noting that empowerment and power are not the same. Empowerment as a construct has the notion of power embedded in it. Power suggests authority whereas empowerment could exist without the power to realize goals, “power is never political or psychological, it is always both” (Zimmerman, 1995, 2000). Power indicates an intrinsic need for self-determination or a belief in personal self-efficacy. Anything strengthening this belief will cause an individual to feel more powerful. Conversely, a sense of powerlessness is felt when anything challenges or weakens those beliefs (Rawat, 2014).

Women’s empowerment is measured using two different indicators. The gender-related development index (GDI) measures gender inequalities across three dimensions of the human development index (HDI): life expectancy, education, and income. The gender empowerment measure (GEM) calculates the proportion of women present in economic and political arenas and assesses gender gaps in political representation, professional and managerial positions, and income (Selamu and Singhe, 2017).

Evidence shows that there has been a major improvement in women’s political empowerment across the globe. In recent decades, governments internationally have recognized and championed the importance of empowering women as critical to the development of modern states. The United Nations, and numerous other international bodies, have urged its member states to commit to achieving a minimum of 30 percent of all elected positions be held by women. Despite this, women’s political empowerment in countries in the Middle East and North Africa remains low, namely Saudi Arabia where very few rights are granted to women. Saudi women’s political empowerment compared to women’s political empowerment in most Arab countries in 1950, 1970, 1990, and 2010 is shown in the following table (Sundström et al. 2015, p. 3, 18, 40–41) (Table 1).

Table 1 Women’s political empowerment for most Arab countries in 1950, 1970, 1990, 2010.
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Modern political thought amongst Saudi decision-makers has elevated the political empowerment of Saudi women to an advanced position as a key priority (Al-Tarek, 2014, pp. 11–12) in a developing country where gender differences have been widely observed. Saudi Arabia has a population of (33,413.660) million, with Saudi nationals estimated at (20,768.727) million (10,575,895 males and 10,192,732 females). Females comprise an estimated (49.08%) of the total Saudi population (General Authority for Statistics, 2018). Saudi Arabia has emerged as a leading society in the empowerment of women compared to other societies in the Arab region. Some of the Kingdom’s recent decisions regarding the political empowerment of Saudi women are as follows:

  1. 1.

    In 2013 30 women were appointed to the Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia 2013.

  2. 2.

    In 2015, women participated as voters and candidates for the first time in municipal councils (although women represented only 10% of the total electorate, with 130,637 women compared to 1,355,840 men).

Although a good number of seats are reserved for women in politics, the Global Gender Gap Index for women’s political empowerment in Saudi Arabia is disappointing. The Global Gender Gap Index for Saudi Arabia was 0.524 in 2006, 0.6059 in 2014, and 0.599 in 2020, with a population of 10,575,895 males and 10,192,732 females. In 2013, women were appointed to certain positions, and in 2015, 130,637 women participated, ranking 5th. The highest possible score is 1, indicating equality or better for women. The Political Empowerment Index, according to the 2020 report, was 0.077, placing Saudi Arabia 138th out of 153 countries, compared to 0.000 in 2006 (Global Gender Gap, Report, 2020).

Creating favorable conditions for the political empowerment of women in Saudi Arabia has not necessarily led to feelings of empowerment for Saudi women. A distinction must be made between creating conditions conducive to empowerment and for the experience of empowerment. A woman cannot feel politically empowered without first having psychological empowerment. It is agreed that a bottom-up process of empowerment is more effective than top-down strategies of empowerment. Henceforth, strategies for empowerment must support women in creating conditions for their own empowerment and encourage them to voice the changes needed to achieve social change (Batool et al. 2016). Therefore, the rationale for this research was developed to examine the psychological empowerment indicators of politically empowered Saudi women and assess the relationship between their political and psychological empowerment.

A historical overview of Saudi women’s empowerment

The first stage: conditional social empowerment within the family (the first half of the twentieth century)

Social empowerment resources in this stage were limited to family empowerment linked to a woman’s biological ability to reproduce, in addition to customs that enhance women’s status with age. Education was limited to kuttabs (a place for education attached to the mosque) and a small number of private schools in the late fifties. Economic empowerment was limited to traditional work with limited family returns (Al-Ghamdi and Halawi, 1988; Al-Qahtani, 1995; Al-Aidan, 2016; Al-Maizar, 2017).

The second stage: Girls’ education and community empowerment (1960:1980)

Women’s empowerment achieved an important shift through three resources: opening schools to girls, developing free health services, and women entering the paid labor market as teachers (Al-Kurdousi, 1996; Al-Qahtani, 2022).

The third stage: restricted social and economic empowerment (1980:1999)

The resources of empowerment were in two opposite directions, the first was the continuation of social empowerment for women with the increase in female graduates and the development of health services, and the second was the lack of development of job opportunities in a manner that parallels the large increase in the number of female graduates. Women also faced the awakening of a culture that opposed women’s empowerment and the expansion of job opportunities (Al-Qahtani, 2022).

The fourth stage: combined local and global empowerment (2000:2015)

The most prominent sources of empowerment were embodied in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s ratification of the Third Millennium Development Goals, which stipulated gender equality in 2000, and the Convention on the Non-Discrimination against Women. Empowerment of women’s citizenship started by granting them an identity card and equalizing them with men in opportunities for external scholarships. The stage was characterized by the beginning of women’s political empowerment with women entering municipal councils and the Shura Council (Al-Quraini, 2020).

The fifth stage: legal empowerment (2015 to date)

This included horizontal empowerment by abolishing previous legislation such as the requirement of guardian approval for transactions, the ban on driving, the prohibition of women traveling without a mahram, and the reform of personal status laws. New legislation was also enacted to protect women from harassment and domestic violence. Vertical empowerment was achieved by expanding the appointment of women to senior positions (Al-Qahtani, 2022). Female illiteracy decreased from 90% in the 1950s to 5.6% in 2018 (Saudi Press Agency, 2018), and educational opportunities were equal between the sexes (49% of females, 51% of males) (General Authority for Statistics, 2018).

It should be noted at the end of the historical overview of the empowerment of Saudi women that: The agency and guardianship of Saudi Muslim women are important issues. Where there was the “agency” law in which a woman delegates a man to sign transactions on her behalf, and the “guardianship” law that requires the approval of the woman’s guardian for her transactions for study, work, travel, housing, and even medical operations, and the prohibition of issuing a personal card for a woman, and the prohibition of her driving a car. This turned the male norms that were practiced against women in Saudi society have to societal laws in what is known as the “Neo- Patriarchy” stage. Therefore, the reforms related to granting Saudi women a personal identity card, a copy of the marriage or divorce certificate, knowing that their husband has married another woman, and registering a child’s birth certificate are a qualitative shift in the framework of empowering them.

Literatures review

Several studies have evaluated the electoral scene, in its third session, in which women won several memberships in cities and villages across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. For example, in 2017, Al-Dossary revealed that there were a number of reasons women won seats, including the support of families, despite apparent reluctance to participate in the municipal elections. Aburia (2017) acknowledges the role of civil society in the political empowerment of Saudi women, especially during the municipal elections that took place in 2015 in which women participated for the first time as voters and candidates. The study of Ibn Shalhoub (2017) concluded that the political empowerment of Saudi women must incorporate several levels: first, participation in the decision-making process; second, the ability to objectively analyze critique and then confront the social systems that perpetuate gender discrimination and; finally, equality concerning women’s economic needs.

Al-Otaibi’s (2019) study showed that cultural factors were the most influential in the low levels of women’s participation in Saudi politics. The patriarchal culture, customs, and traditions of the Kingdom favor men in decision-making positions and, compounded by women’s lack of awareness of their political rights, have led to an imbalance of power between the genders. Additionally, Al-Quraini (2019) identified social upbringing as the initial obstacle to Saudi women’s political participation because certain tasks, duties, and behaviors are imposed on men and women according to gender. There is a generally negative perception of women’s political capabilities within the Kingdom, where tribal customs and traditions, along with the demands of some religious groups, reject women’s participation in decision-making in the political arena.

The long-lived patriarchal structure of the Kingdom is overwhelmingly embedded in every part of the societal fabric. There are customary laws, based on the ideologies of patriarchal order, which largely promote women’s submissiveness. It can be said that women’s subordination is an entirely unconscious process. Significant in the effort to address these ideologies is the failure to actively engage men in gender equality work. The gender power model shows that men have greater access to the use of force, greater access to resource control, fewer social obligations to uphold, and more advantageous cultural ideologies. Power is therefore gendered (UNDP, 2010; Huis et al. 2017). It is unhelpful to analyze gender relations based on generalized assumptions that women are oppressed because relations vary according to place and time. Therefore, gender relations should always be investigated in specific contexts and pertaining to the realities of women’s lives (Mosedale, 2005; Haase, 2011; Kurtis and Adams, 2015). In fact, Narayan (2005) stresses that empowerment develops through the interaction between the individual and the cultural context and that failure to consider socio-political and cultural structures can perpetuate the imbalance of power between genders (Dutt et al. 2016).

Individuals’ development and behavior are the result of a complex interaction between a person and multiple layers of environmental systems. An individual does not develop within a vacuum but through interaction with five environmental ‘systems’ and, any effort to empower women politically should address issues within each of these systems. Which are (Bronfenbrenner, 1994): I. Microsystem: The immediate environment that directly impacts an individual’s behavior. II. Mesosystem: The combined elements of the microsystem which do not exist independently but interact with and affect each other. III. Exosystem: Environmental aspects that indirectly affect the individual. IV. Macrosystem: The culture in which members share a common identity, traditions, and values, including gender-based norms. V. Chronosystem: The patterns of significant environmental events and transitions that occur over an individual’s lifetime, impacting his/her behavior. Real empowerment of women can only occur when it is adequately reflected in all elements of all five environmental systems that determine human behavior and development.

Definition

Women’s political empowerment means women have access to all sources of information about political participation, women support political structures through voting systems, women engage in civic activities, women support the legislative process, women are represented at regional, state, and national levels and lobbying for women’s rights takes place in parliament (Varghese, 2019). Women’s political empowerment is defined by Alexander et al. (2016) as “the enhancement of assets, capabilities, and achievements of women to gain equality to men in influencing and exercising political authority worldwide.” According to Sundström et al. (2015, p. 4) women’s political empowerment is three-dimensional and defined as a process of increasing the capacity of women for greater choice, agency, and participation in societal decision-making. Political empowerment is defined in this study as “the participation of Saudi women in the membership of municipal councils, as a result of their victory in the elections of these councils”.

Women’s psychological empowerment means; women have self-confidence, bargaining strength, liberty of choices, and coping capacities within households (Parveen and Leonhauser, 2005) and is represented by four indicators: impact, significance, competence/self-efficacy, and choice/self-determination. Significance refers to the value and importance a woman gives to her roles, duties, work, and purpose in life, in relation to her own standards or ideals. Competence/self-efficacy is the degree to which a woman feels that she is able to perform different tasks with skill and reflects confidence in the ability to exercise control over her own behavior, and social environment. Choice/self-determination is the sense of autonomy a woman has in taking initiative, making decisions and the degree of autonomy she has in work, relationships, behaviors, and processes. Impact is the degree to which a woman feels that she can exert strategic influence on her family, and social circle, and her perseverance in difficult situations (Hackman and Oldham, 1980; Bell and Staw, 1989; Ashforth, 1989; Brief and Nord, 1990; Gist and Mitchell, 1992; Batool and Batool, 2018). According to Spreitzer (1995), several assumptions must be made when defining psychological empowerment; first, empowerment is not a fixed personality trait applicable in all situations; second, empowerment is a gradable concept rather than something that is either possessed or not—people can be viewed as more or less empowered, rather than empowered or not empowered. Third, empowerment is not a global construct generalizable across different life situations and roles but specific to activities. Pandey (2016) highlights how self-efficacy and perception of the adequacy of resources are both important for the transformation of structural empowerment initiatives to psychological empowerment. The perception of structurally empowering tasks should be analyzed before empowerment initiatives can be said to be perceived as actually empowering women.

Psychological empowerment in this study is defined as “the extent to which Saudi women feel psychological empowerment, as represented by their feelings of significance, impact, self-efficacy, and self-determination”.

The Municipal Council is a legal entity with financial and administrative independence. It is organizationally affiliated with the Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs. The Council consists of not more than 30 members—determined by the Minister according to the categories of municipalities—two-thirds of whom are chosen by election, the rest appointed. The term of the council is four fiscal years starting from the date of the fiscal year of the state following its formation. It is permissible by a decision of the Council of Ministers, in exceptional cases, to extend this period for no more than two years. The council approves the municipal plans and programs, the municipal budget, and the final account of the municipality; the council exercises its supervisory powers over the municipality’s performance and the services it provides (Municipal Councils Law issued by Royal Decree No. M/61 dated 4/10/1435 AH).

Objectives

  1. 1.

    Assess the psychological empowerment indicators of politically empowered Saudi women.

  2. 2.

    Assess the relationship between the psychological and political empowerment of Saudi women.

Hypotheses

Main hypothesis

There is a relationship between politically and non-politically empowered Saudi women and their psychological empowerment.

Sub-hypotheses

  1. 1.

    There is a relationship between politically and non-politically empowered Saudi women and a sense of significance;

  2. 2.

    There is a relationship between politically and non-politically empowered Saudi women and a sense of impact;

  3. 3.

    There is a relationship between politically and non-politically empowered Saudi women and a sense of self-efficacy;

  4. 4.

    There is a relationship between politically and non-politically empowered Saudi women and a sense of self-determination.

Methodology

This paper is a descriptive study carried out to test the relationship between Saudi women’s political and psychological empowerment. Ex Post Facto Design carried out the research using the following steps:

  1. 1.

    Determined the independent variable “political empowerment” and dependent variable “psychological empowerment”.

  2. 2.

    Identified the two groups as follows:

  1. a.

    The first group (Politically empowered women): A comprehensive inventory of all female members of Saudi municipal councils in their third session, 2015—in which women participated for the first time as voters and candidates—amounted to (20) women; 1% of the elected municipal council members, where the total number of members was 3156 (2106 elected representatives totaling 70%, 1053 appointed representatives totaling 30%) distributed across (284) municipal councils. Female members were distributed across the Kingdom’s geographical regions as follows (Table 2):

    Table 2 Distribution of female members of municipal council across the Kingdom’s geographical regions.
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  2. b.

    The second group (non-politically empowered women): contained (18) women with all the same characteristics as the first group except for political empowerment.

  1. 3.

    Psychological empowerment was measured in both groups; the relationship in psychological empowerment between politically and non-politically empowered Saudi women was measured. The eighteen members of the first group (politically empowered women) contributed to the selection of the 18 members of the second group (Non-politically empowered women), where each member selected three members in light of the characteristics: geographical region, marital, educational, and employment status. Accordingly, the sampling frame reached (54) Non-politically empowered women, and the selection of (18) of them was added in light of the tribal affiliation dimension (clan).

A multicultural psychological empowerment scale for Saudi Women (MPES) was used. MPES contained (26) phrases evenly distributed across four dimensions; significance, impact, self-efficacy, and self-determination. A 5-point Likert format was assigned to each item for MPES (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = indecisive, 4 = agree, and 5 = strongly agree). MPES-SW score ranges were determined as (26:130) degrees. MPES validity was tested through the correlation coefficients (0.606**), and MPES reliability was tested through Cronbach Alpha (0.887), they were statistically significant at the level of significance of (0.01).

  1. 4.

    Data were collected from both groups of women in the period 8/8/2021–21/8/2021.

Results and discussion

Description of the research community

Table 3 presents a description of the research community. 44.4% are aged (31–40), 33.3% are aged (41–50), and 22.2% are aged (51–60). 72.2% are married, 16.7% are divorced, 5.6% are widowed, and 5.6% are single. 77.8% hold a bachelor’s degree, 16.7% PhD, 5.6 MA. Finally, 55.6% are employees, and the percentages of Inoperative, Faculty members are each 16.7% and Freelancers are 5.6%.

Table 3 Characterization of the research community (N = 18).
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Looking at all the 18 female municipal council members, it is clear that they belong to well-known tribes in the areas in which they ran and were elected, which have a large population base, which contributed to the voting process, and was a relatively important factor in winning these elections. However, it must be noted that all the elected female municipal council members acknowledged that their community participation and prominent roles in social, developmental, and voluntary work were the most prominent factors in their election.

Psychological empowerment indicators

Table 4 shows the most important indicators of a sense of the significance of politically empowered Saudi women, one of their psychological empowerment dimensions. They were: aware of the impact of achieving their goals on various aspects of their life; and the value of their duties. It seems that this was related to a woman’s position of assuming responsibility, given that these were the first elections in which Saudi women were allowed to run and vote (in 2015, 128 years after women’s suffrage in 1893, and 108 years after women’s election in 1907), a matter that carries with it courage and risk in addressing prevailing tribal cultural traditions surrounding women in Saudi society. This indicates that Saudi women are just beginning to take their first steps towards political participation, demonstrated by their relatively small number (20 women), 1% of all elected municipal council members (3156) across (284) municipal councils. Thus, these women have started to relinquish the roles they played in the patriarchal society. Al-Quraini (2019) indicated this experience as the beginning of the elimination of societal obstacles in the way of women’s participation in Saudi politics that differentiated between men and women based on tasks, duties, and behaviors imposed according to the nature of each gender.

Table 4 Significance indicators.
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Table 5 shows the multiplicity of indicators of politically empowered Saudi women’s sense of impact—one of the dimensions of her psychological empowerment, investing abilities into helping my social circle and creating a positive and moral atmosphere rank first. Taking clear positions and giving power to those in my social circle rank second. While advocating for the rights of others and making positive differences in my relationships rank third. Perhaps the multiplicity of indicators of politically empowered Saudi women’s sense of impact stems from her success in winning the first elections in which Saudi women ever participated. This lies in her feelings of impact, especially in the indicators of investing abilities into, giving power to, and advocating for others, given the clear meaning of these indicators from the self-aware sense of empowerment. As Rawat (2014) pointed out, an empowered woman believes that she can adequately cope with events, situations, and/or the people she confronts. As Parveen and Leonhauser (2005) pointed out, psychological potential gives a woman an increasing level of self-confidence, bargaining strength, liberty of choices, and coping capacities.

Table 5 Impact indicators.
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Table 6 illustrates the self-efficacy indicators of politically empowered Saudi women, the most important of which were gaining benefits that contribute toward achieving goals, having good problem-solving skills, and dealing effectively with new situations. It seems that the most important of these indicators are related to the effectiveness of management and problem-solving skills; common practical skills which are useful in helping a person achieve their goals and take control of their social life without impediment. These skills are of course linked to the nature of these women’s initial decision to run in the Saudi municipal elections as voters and candidates in 2015, despite previously long-standing patriarchal structures in Saudi Arabia.

Table 6 Self-efficacy indicators.
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Table 7 shows the self-determination indicators of politically empowered Saudi women, and the most important of these indicators were taking initiative in life situations, and taking responsibility for decisions. It seems that self-determination indicators largely explain the initiative of this group of Saudi women to run for and win, elections in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Taking initiative and assuming responsibility for decisions, as one dimension of women’s empowerment, highlights the psychological and social characteristics of Saudi women even before their political participation. The initiative of a group of Saudi women to take part in the first experiment is noteworthy, especially in light of the societal culture with clear gender differentiation. This is confirmed by the victory of only 20 women in those elections, representing 1% of the total seats in the elected Saudi municipal councils. As Al-Dossary (2017) emphasized, the winners received family support and the role of the family in the social upbringing process, which was initially devoted to rejecting women’s political participation, being a major reason for the victory of that small percentage of women. Al-Quraini (2019) pointed to upbringing as the first societal obstacle to Saudi women’s political participation, where differentiation was made between men and women based on tasks, duties, and behaviors imposed according to the nature of gender. Perhaps this conclusion is closely related to the role of the family in the process of socialization that can either hinder or support women, and in this a clear directive to intervene in Saudi families so as to carry out a process of socialization based on preparing the sexes equally and justly, rejecting anything that supports discrimination on the basis of gender. The necessity of preparing both genders comes from the premise that ignoring the participation of Saudi men in societal gender correction processes will make creating favorable conditions for the empowerment of Saudi women a wasted effort.

Table 7 Self-determination indicators.
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The descriptive statistics were reported for each item using SPSS software. Using this method, the authors can determine which item is recognized as the most important element under corresponding variables. Specifically, item 2 (I am aware of the impact of achieving my goals in various aspects of my life) from Significance was of the highest importance while the Impact indicator has 2 similar results (item 2 and item 4). Under the Self-Efficacy variable, item 7 (I try to benefit from anything that might contribute towards achieving my goals) is observed as the most important item based on respondent perception. Lastly, item 1 (I take the initiative in various life situations) from the Self-Determination variable is viewed as the best measurement. To fulfill the research objective requirement, the Pearson correlation analysis is utilized.

Pearson correlation

Table 8 presents the Pearson correlation result for each variable applied to this study. It indicates that all variable correlations meet the acceptable limit (<0.90) suggesting that all variables are free from multicollinearity problems. In the meantime, all correlations are statistically significant at 0.05.

Table 8 Correlations.
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Hypotheses

Table 9 of the study’s hypotheses shows that there is a statistically significant correlation between the four dimensions of psychological empowerment (Significance, Impact, Efficacy, Determination) in the two groups of Saudi women from the research sample (politically and non-politically empowered Saudi women), meaning that politically and non-politically empowered Saudi women have the same degree of psychological empowerment (P = 1000**).

Table 9 Comparison between first and second groups using Pearson correlation.
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Conclusion

This study attempted to identify the most important indicators of the psychological empowerment of politically empowered Saudi women and reveal the relationship between political and psychological empowerment. It aimed to identify whether political empowerment leads to psychological empowerment or psychological empowerment contributes to political empowerment. The most important indicators of psychological empowerment among politically empowered Saudi women were estimated to be: creating a positive atmosphere of “impact”, benefitting from anything contributing towards achieving their goals “self-efficacy”, and taking the initiative in various life situations “self-determination”. There was a statistically significant correlation between the four dimensions of psychological empowerment within the two groups of Saudi women “politically and non-politically empowered Saudi women”. So, Saudi women were psychologically empowered before they were politically empowered. In other words, being psychologically empowered may have helped women to run in the municipal council elections which had a royal decree for women to participate for the first time as voters and candidates. In explanation, referring to the characteristics of the sample (which are identical in both groups except for political empowerment), it was noted that the majority (77.8%) had a bachelor’s degree with 22.2% a master’s or doctorate degree. The majority (83.3%) worked as employees, Freelancers, and faculty members. Having been educated and in employment may account for the significant correlation between the dimensions of psychological empowerment in the two research sample groups of Saudi women. More research is required to determine whether psychological empowerment is what prompted Saudi women to run for the first elections in the Kingdom, or whether there are other contributing factors, such as education and work. The motivation that political, human rights and feminist institutions sought to empower Saudi women, alongside the decision allowing women to participate as candidates and voters, has been a great incentive for Saudi women to become involved and take responsibility for their various personal, familial, and societal positions.

Limitations

Perhaps the biggest limitation to further research in the field of Saudi women’s political participation is the limited size of the research community. The first group to go through the experience in 2015 continued the membership of those councils, according to the municipal council’s system, which sets the term of the council’s work at 4 years decided by a ruling of the Council of Ministers. In exceptional cases, this period may be extended for no more than 2 years. Municipal councils are the entities that allow Saudi women to run for office and vote within a wide geographical and residential area, while women’s membership in the Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia is still by appointment. Perhaps the political empowerment of Saudi women goes beyond the idea of creating favorable conditions for empowerment, as is the case in membership by appointment, to practicing the experience of empowerment, as is the case in municipal councils by candidacy and election. Indeed, the political situation of Saudi women requires more mechanisms, plans, and visions of empowerment, just as it needs more future research, provided that a new research community is available to evaluate the experience again in quantity and quality.