Women Suffrage

A local Saudi paper recently published an article which caused quite a kerfuffle in the Arab world. The paper reported that 87% of Saudis support women voting. How very progressive of them.

In challenging the question of women suffrage, Abeer Mishkas from Arab News, rather than considering the the merits of allowing women an equal say in society, has criticised the poll.

We all know that the voices opposed to women voting are much louder and stronger than the ones supporting it. But wait a minute! Read the first paragraph of the item and it is immediately clear that this statistic — as with so many other of our statistics — is seriously flawed. It is not really an accurate statistic but an assumption. The survey on which the figures were based was carried out on a very small group of people — according to the article only 240. This is far too small a number to be accepted as a general fact, applicable to the entire Saudi population. This really makes us wonder about the truth of many “facts” we accept unquestioningly.

Of course, you can't help but agree with Mishkas. 240 is a very miniscule sample and we do tend to accept opinion polls too quickly without carefully considering the mechanics of the poll.

Comments

[Wayne]

Probably true, but it's also worth remembering some stats and misconceptions when it comes to the same stats.

For one, when one extracts a sample entering the several thousands and it is also done in a way that draws from all spectrums of the group sampled, then it actually does start to become more valid. You don't need to sample hundreds of thousands.

The only problem is that stats is never about absolute/set in stone figures - which many political analysts seem to miss. They're rather about the likelihood of estimated figures being right based on the sample. So if something is within a certain sample range it becomes increasingly likely.

Of course it's still worth noting, as you say, that Mishkas is challenging the result not out of any love for statistics.

By the way, nice traffic stats. You're clearly outdoing Commentary.co.za as well :)

[Steve]

Thanks Wayne,
As you mention I would have preferred to find an article that discussed the consequences of allowing women to vote in S.Arabia.