The impact of social media on women’s empowerment in the Kingdom of Bahrain

Abstract The empowerment of women is currently a vital issue appearing on political agendas at national and international levels. Accordingly, this research investigates the current situation regarding the use of social media (SM) by women in the Kingdom of Bahrain in terms of the preferences, purposes, and restrictions on using SM, the impact of SM, and women’s perception of the role of SM in empowering them economically, socially, and politically. A quantitative method was adopted by sending a total of 400 survey questionnaires to women distributed among the different governorates in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The results revealed that most SM use has a positive effect on the empowerment of women in the Kingdom of Bahrain, except for Snapchat and YouTube. The research findings include recommendations for training women in Bahrain to use SM to draw public attention to women’s rights, enhance the visibility of issues, and train gender promoters in strategic means for organizing online campaigns.