Saudi Women Empowerment Constraints for Participation in Sports and Physical Activities
Saudi women have recently witnessed unprecedented sociocultural changes in lifestyle and
prosperity, as a result of recent female empowerment policies. Among these changes is the public
acceptance of female participation in sport and physical activities. However, due to lack of good
opportunities for sport and physical activity participation in previous years, Saudi women might still
encounter tremendous factors that prevent or limit their participation. The study purpose was to
investigate constraints that limit or prohibit Saudi female from participation in light of the recent
empowerment policies. The developed questionnaire was based on the leisure constraint theory and
distributed in all regions of the country, yielding a sample of 866 female participants. The results
indicated that the majority used their homes as the place for participation, with significant
differences among geographical location in intrapersonal and interpersonal constraints, and an
overall high score in structural constraints. It was concluded that Saudi females’ ability to participate
in sports and physical activities is severely constrained by too many factors that need to be
alleviated by policy makers and investors.
Saudi women have recently witnessed unprecedented sociocultural changes in lifestyle and
prosperity, as a result of recent female empowerment policies. Among these changes is the public…