The Dynamics of Empowerment, Gender, and Patriarchy in Saudi Women’s Short Stories

In their quest for liberation, Saudi women writers have employed a variety of strategic approaches to overcome gender inequality and patriarchal restrictions. One approach deployed to blurring gender boundaries is writing short stories, which serve as a means of empowerment and the transcendence of patriarchal, oppressive norms. This paper will approach Saudi female short stories within the framework of a discourse of empowerment and consciousness-raising, exploring the overlapping themes of patriarchy, gender, and empowerment. The paper will focus on the timeframe from the 1970s to the 1990s. A case study of fifteen short stories written by Saudi women is examined, with the objective of providing illuminating evidence about the rhetoric of empowerment, resistance to patriarchal limitations, and rejection of gender discrimination. The study's findings indicate that storytelling proved to be an especially effective method for empowering women, raising consciousness, and presenting an empowerment model as a substitute for the patriarchal system. Using an analytical-critical approach coupled with a thematic perspective, the text addresses three key pertinent issues: the challenge of patriarchal assumptions, the struggle for empowerment, and the redefinition of gender roles.