Unemployment of Saudi Women

Lack of available employment is one of the greatest factors that deter women from pursuing their education or lead them to discontinue their course. The restriction of employment to mainly such as fields as teaching leads to an increase in the number of unemployed women.

Unemployment has increased, especially in the field of accountancy and computer science, because the jobs that are available in highly specific specialisations for which training is not generally available to women. For the small number of women who have been trained in the field, when an area become highly competitive or subject to a downturn or other pressure, in Saudi Arabia as elsewhere, men tend to be prioritised over women. This results in a job market that is closed to women. It also deprives them of the opportunity of being hired in the private sector.

The education available to women generally has been based on rules determining outcomes in specific specialisations that theoretically offer the impression that they are suitable for women by their nature. Hence women have traditionally been restricted to education and health. In fact, tens of thousands of women cannot enrol in university education insti­tutions, nor can they look for jobs as these are rare and the women are not sufficiently qualified to apply. In addition, women who are unem­ployed due to the lack of available employment for women become liable to be subject to abject poverty, frustration and depression.

a)The right to work as an inalienable right of all human beings.

b) The right to the same employment opportunities, including the application of the same criteria for selection in matters of employment.^[1389]

The State has already moved to allow teaching contracts of foreign teachers in the public sector to lapse, thus increasing the employment opportunities for women in the sector.^[1390] The policy of Saudisation is being consciously adopted to absorb more, young secondary school leavers and tertiary graduates into the workforce. Where the government cannot exert direct control in the private sector, other means have been adopted to encourage greater local employment.^[1391] With an estimated one million persons unemployed, the task is enormous.^[1392] To tackle this problem further, I have come up with the following suggestions:

1. A campaign needs to be adopted to satisfy the necessity of enhancing awareness of women’s abilities and the contributions of working women to society and their families. Positive accounts of how working women should be shared, that tells of how they have been able to overcome social and economic difficulties, to make that contribution, and also demonstrate how they confronted challenges and faced them seriously.

2. The Ministry of Work, the Ministry of Education and the Depart­ment for the Establishment of Technical Training and Human Resources, together with businessmen, should make strategies for training for all qualifying unemployed persons and seek to bridge the gaps in order to help learning outcomes meet the needs of the job market. In addition, the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Civil Services and other competent authorities must meet all needs of all sectors for overcoming the shortage of different jobs.

3. I also propose the creation of a fund to which all governmental authorities should contribute as well as the private sector and businessmen. The monies in this fund should be used for qualifying and training unemployed persons to meet the needs of the job market as is necessary. The fund would work towards ensuring the mix of trained personnel meets the demands of the job market, particularly as the policy of Saudisation takes place. This fund would be supervised by the Ministry of Work and the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Establishment of Technical Training and Human Resources.

4. Finally, I suggest creating a website for registration of the data of those who desire to be hired and their particular area/s of speciali­sation, and also data related to the needs of the competent author­ities. The website must be updated daily in order to facilitate the applicants gaining access to the authorities that are in need of workers. This could occur under the supervision of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Human Resources.^[1393]

D.