Samenvatting

Domestic workers in Saudi Arabia suffer from severely limited access to justice, which affects the conflicts they may have with their employers. As there is no bargaining in the shadow of the law, the more powerful party, employer, can usually enforce their preferred outcome. This article focuses on the question of why domestic workers’ access to justice is so limited; are the underlying causes comparable to the ones in other countries, or does it concern an issue specific to Saudi Arabia? Literature on domestic workers points at both gender and citizenship as factors that weaken the position of these female migrant workers in many societies. This article discusses to what extent these two factors limit access to justice in Saudi Arabia and concludes with some critical remarks concerning the concept of intersectionality.