Women on the Oil Frontier: Gender and Power in Aramco's Arabia

dc.citation.firstpage55en_US
dc.citation.issueNumberSpringen_US
dc.citation.journalTitleRice Historical Reviewen_US
dc.citation.lastpage69en_US
dc.citation.volumeNumber2en_US
dc.contributor.authorJones, Benjaminen_US
dc.contributor.illustratorWu, Xiaoyu (Linda)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2017-06-15T13:51:39Zen_US
dc.date.available2017-06-15T13:51:39Zen_US
dc.date.issued2017en_US
dc.descriptionThis paper was written in Dr. Nathan Citino's history seminar, America in the Middle East (HIST 436).en_US
dc.description.abstractThe Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco), which controlled the world's largest crude oil reserve and was once the largest American investment overseas, often claimed that its petroleum extraction activities contributed to the modernization of Saudi society. Scholars have critiqued Aramco's narrative of enlightened self interest by showing how the company clung to a racialized labor hierarchy and repeatedly eschewed reforms. This essay continues that criticism by examining Aramco’s policies on women and the family. Using internal memos and publicity materials released between 1940 and 1970, this study reveals how Aramco’s American owners used gender to understand, manage, and Orientalize their Saudi employees. In its public image, Aramco claimed to be liberating Saudi women from an anachronistically oppressive society. Yet in the jobs it did (and did not) offer to women, as well as the housing options it gave to Saudi families, the company’s policies demonstrate a similarly patriarchal logical work.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipRice History Departmenten_US
dc.format.extent15 ppen_US
dc.identifier.citationJones, Benjamin. Wu, Xiaoyu (Linda) (illustrator). "Women on the Oil Frontier: Gender and Power in Aramco's Arabia." <i>Rice Historical Review,</i> 2, no. Spring (2017) Rice University: 55-69. https://doi.org/10.25611/m-00058.en_US
dc.identifier.digitalJones-RHR-2017-Springen_US
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.25611/m-00058en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/94857en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherRice Universityen_US
dc.relation.IsPartOfSeriesSpring 2017en_US
dc.rightsThis article is licensed under a CC-BY license; copyright remains with the authors.en_US
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/en_US
dc.titleWomen on the Oil Frontier: Gender and Power in Aramco's Arabiaen_US
dc.typeJournal articleen_US
dc.type.dcmiTexten_US
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