Tracing Women’s Trajectories: A Rapid Ethnographic Case Study of Women with Learning Disability in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This doctoral project investigates the employability trajectories of women with learning disabilities in Saudi Arabia, with a particular focus on the role of a specific non-governmental organisation (NGO) in shaping opportunities and/or challenges across training and employment phases. Existing literature on disability and employment tends to privilege external perspectives, such as those of caregivers and employers, often overlooking women with learning disabilities’ lived experiences. Studies frequently emphasise visible impairments, leaving the voices of women with learning disabilities largely undocumented. Locally, research in Saudi Arabia has concentrated on rehabilitation and structural barriers, with little attention to first-person accounts or the full span of employment trajectories. This study responds to these gaps by centring the narratives of Saudi women with learning disabilities, and by examining their experiences across the interconnected phases of pre-training, training, and employment within and outside the studied NGO. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory and the concept of intersectionality, the research draws on five in-depth embedded case studies structured per phase (towards employment). Methodologically, the study follows a rapid ethnographic case study design. Data were collected over three months through semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and field observations, involving women with learning disabilities, NGO staff including the head of the NGO, and employers. Thematic analysis was employed to identify cross-cutting patterns and case-specific dynamics. Findings reveal that barriers to employability are multi-layered and intersectional, spanning individual-level psychological and emotional vulnerabilities such as low self-confidence, familial overprotection and gendered restrictions, organisational shortcomings in training and workplace accommodations, and broader societal and cultural norms constraining women’s participation in public life. Meanwhile, enablers emerged most consistently at the organisational level, with the NGO providing training, mentorship, and advocacy, though these supports were insufficient to penetrate and transform entrenched structural constraints and stereotypes. Participants’ identities and aspirations evolved through recognition, skill development, and workplace engagement, yet tensions between personal goals and familial expectations sometimes restricted long-term outcomes. The thesis contributes to disability and gender scholarship by offering an ecological and intersectional integrated analysis of women with learning disabilities’ experiences in Saudi Arabia. It advances theoretical understandings of employability as a socially constructed and relational process, while also providing practical insights for NGOs, policymakers, and employers seeking to promote more equitable pathways to work for women with disabilities.