Varieties of studies about social relationships mainly focus on the cultures or the peer group but do not look into the effects of the interaction between the women and their cultures. The aim of this paper is to investigate the similarities and differences between the self esteem of Saudi women and that of British women in terms of attachment and well being to their cultures. The peer attachments and cultural interactions are important to the lives of women as they provide emotional adjustments especially for the every woman in the world.
INTRODUCTION
Lack of self esteem among women can have severe consequences on her life and further make her social adaptation and integration in the society more difficult. The woman’s involvement in the society is an important source of self esteem. However, despite the growing influence on the reliance on the peers on self esteem, almost all women continue to source important emotional support from their cultures. The important focus is how the cultures and the peer attachment are related to the determination of women self esteem in these two countries.
The women in the United Kingdom have higher self esteem than their counterparts in Saudi Arabia. This can be attributed to the difference in culture which differs greatly in UK and Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, women are supposed to play second fiddle to men who are taken as their superiors in the society. The culture in Saudi Arabia is male centered, and authoritarian and the restrictive nature of the gender has been known to lead to low self esteem among the Saudi women and poor creative thinking. In this society, women are restricted to undertake some activities even as petty as driving while in United Kingdom, the culture does not restrict the British woman of such things. Women in Britain are given the same platform to compete with men which results to boosting of their self esteem. It can be argued that the culture in Saudi Arabia gives less chance for its women to express their opinions and, therefore, low self esteem. On the other hand, women in the United Kingdom are more exposed to a relatively better environment where women are not looked down upon in the social circles and therefore they can express themselves more freely compared to their counterparts in Saudi Arabia. This culture gives women a chance to talk about themselves and share their problems with the rest of the society. This helps boost their self esteem compared to their counterparts in Saudi Arabia.
Women in Saudi Arabia usually resort to the peer attachment in order to compensate for their emotional problems due to the unfavorable nature of their culture. On the other hand, their British counterparts whose relationships with the rest of the society are better, their good influence on the contribution of women welfare will have a positive and significant influence on the peer relationships. Attachment to other women will have a more positive influence on the self esteem of the women in the nature of positive societal relationships.
Self esteem and life satisfaction were considered the as the measures of emotional adjustment in which the study showed that emotional adjustment is correlated to the peer and cultural adjustments. Hence the self esteem is better in women who have superior culture which is all inclusive in the United Kingdom than their counterparts in Saudi Arabia who are not allowed to participate in critical matters.
Perceptions of self worth (self esteem) are normally related to the societal perceptions. The women who face rejection and anxiety due to poor cultural practices have their self esteem affected negatively. Women are not listened to in Saudi Arabia turn to peer group attachment and relationships, which will try to boost their self esteem as compared to their counterparts in the United Kingdom.
CONCLUSION
It is clearly seen that the culture of any society on the perception of women has a large impact on the self esteem of a woman. In societies where the proper societal view of women focuses on, they are going to gain their self esteem and become more critical thinkers than their counterparts who have poor oppressive cultures. Generally, it has been observed that women in the United Kingdom have higher self esteem than their counterparts from Saudi Arabia due to their superior culture that gives the British woman more power to control her environment and compete with men for the betterment of the society. Therefore, for the Saudi woman to gain more self esteem, the oppressive culture needs a total overhaul in order to be more inclusive.
References
Booth-laforce, C., Wonjung, O., Kim, A. H., Rubin, K. H., Rose-Krasnor, L., & Burgess, K. (2008). Attachment,Self worth, and Peer-group functioning in middle childhood. 312-330.
Mohammed, N. Y., & Meins, E. (2003). Self, and autobiographical memory in middle childhood: A cross-cultural study of British and Saudi Arabian children. 1-10.
Oliva, A., Parra, A., & Sanchez-Queija, I. (2002). Parents and peers influence on emotional adjustment during adolescence. 1-9.
