Blog 2: Saudi Arabia Signals Openness to Women Seeking Work

According to a recent study by Oxford Strategic Consulting, 45 percent of Saudi Arabia’s population are women. An approximate 57 percent of the women have university degrees, yet they only make up 15 percent of the labor force. “Saudi women are educated, willing to work and tired of waiting,” said Khalid al-Khudairi, founder of Glowork.net, a recruitment site for women in Saudi Arabia. When he started up the site a year ago, he was hit with threatening phone calls and emails telling him he was violating the country’s cultural norms and to shut down the service. Recently, the Saudi Ministry of Labor has asked him to help assist and encourage the Saudi women to find work. They want to boost employment opportunities for women without “transgressing religious boundaries”, and announced a plan for a more “women friendly” city in the eastern province of Hofuf this upcoming year. “Women in the region have been speaking out more, demanding equal rights and good positions for years. And now we’re seeing real change in Saudi,” said 29 year old Mr.Khudairi. Unfortunately, “introducing women into the Gulf private sector work force will not be easy,” reported Leila Hoteit, a consultant at Booz & Co. in the United Arab Emirates. Adel Fakieh, the Saudi labor minister, appointed in August 2010, has pushed through a “feminization” program that has included replacing the men who work in sales at lingerie stores with women. "It may seem humorous, but it was important for gender equality in a country where religious conservatives deem it inappropriate for women to work outside the home" said the reporter of the article. They are expected to put childcare and family first. Then you have improper training, inappropriate working conditions, and the male dominated culture. Another difficulty that arises when it comes to hiring women is the need for separate environments from the men. “If they hire women to work, they need another office, with electricity, a dedicated security guard, computers,” Mr. Khudairi said. “This is a major cost, especially for small, local companies”. Fortunately they came up with the technology of cloud computing, giving companies the choice of hiring women to work from home. This makes it more convenient for those who live in rural areas. It also assists those with children, or disabilities.

“Why do we educate our women and then expect them to just sit at home?” asked the founder of Glowork.net. Saudi Arabia is one of the more “oppressing” Islamic countries when it comes to women’s roles in society, and I think it’s great that they are taking a step forward in offering their women job opportunities. But it is a baby step. Roughly 60 percent of women with a Ph.D. degrees are not working, according to a recent study by Booz. Reading that made me shake my head in disapproval. If someone went through all of the trouble to attain their Ph.D., they should be able to use it! I hope that in the future, they can start appointing the Saudi women more influential jobs. Maybe the nation can construct all women-hospitals and open up more job opportunities for women to practice medicine. The Government spent $640 million on unemployment benefits last year alone, but that will hopefully decrease as more women start making their own income.  I wish the jobs appointed were more than secretarial and office work, but i hope this is just a small step for Saudi women and other surrounding Arab countries. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-signals-openness-to-women-seeking-work.html?pagewanted=all