Negotiating Identity in the Kingdom : A Conversation with Five Young Saudi Arabian Women about Identity Development and Expression

Abstract: “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman,” Simone de Beauvoir once famously said presenting the hypothesis that the idea of a woman, the female identity, is constructed as a reflection of its context. The purpose of this paper is to discover one aspect of this construction by exploring the identity development and expression of five young women, in the context of Saudi Arabia, to theorize about how they construct their ego identity and sense of self in the context in which they exist. Though in-depth conversations it is established how the women view themselves and their expression. This material is then reflected upon through the prism of defining identity and the identity status’ as explored by Eric Erikson and James Marcia as to create a further understanding of the women’s creation of self. The conclusion is that young women in Saudi Arabia construct their identity through negotiation. Faced with blurred lines of personal, religious and national identity, negotiation is unavoidable in the complex structure in which the women’s expression and development takes place.