The Role of Qatari Women in the Military Sector of Qatar: 2018–2024

Abstract

The study aims to identify the role of Qatari women in the military sector, where their participation does not exceed 20%, and to determine the factors limiting their involvement. The study examines the cultural and social factors affecting women, in addition to the obstacles they face within the armed forces. It is based on a research problem centered on the extent of Qatari women’s contribution to the military sector, and on the hypothesis that changing cultural and societal perceptions would enhance women’s role in this field.

The study adopted a case study approach through conducting interviews, where 15 interviews were carried out with Qatari male and female employees working in different military units at the Qatari Ministry of Defense. In addition, a quantitative approach was used to measure the level of Qatari women’s contribution to the military sector by collecting and analyzing statistics related to the numbers and percentages of Qatari women employed at the Ministry of Defense during the period from 2018 to 2024, in both civilian and military positions.

The study reached several findings, most notably that the percentage of Qatari women employed in civilian positions at the Ministry of Defense between 2018 and 2024 reached 67%, indicating a preference among Qatari women for civilian jobs compared to military positions, which did not exceed 20%. The results also showed that 13% of Qatari women were employed in other fields, such as medical services, including medicine, nursing, and first aid, in addition to certain service-related jobs such as kitchen work. These findings indicate the continued presence of obstacles limiting the integration of Qatari women into the military sector. These obstacles are distributed across social, cultural, and institutional levels, with social and cultural barriers being the most prominent, along with a lack of societal awareness of the importance of women’s role, weak training, and inadequate strategic planning. This highlights the need to provide an attractive work environment to achieve better integration between males and females in shared tasks and joint projects.