DAMMAM, 7 March 2008 — Having women in work place is a major reason for achieving national development, keynote speaker Princess Adelah bint Abdullah told a forum here on Wednesday. More than 200 Saudi businesswomen and academics met at the Carlton Al-Moaibed Hotel to attend the Business Women’s Forum of the Eastern Province’s second conference, titled “The Saudi Woman Between Economics and Social Reality.”

The conference included sessions on the social challenges faced by women in the private sector; the experiences of businesswomen in neighboring countries; the means for collaboration between women working in various sectors in the Kingdom; and the role of education in economic development.

Princess Adelah, who spoke in the first session titled “The Futuristic View for Saudi Women”, pointed out that having women in the work place is a major reason for achieving national development. To this end it is important to investigate if the foundation is available in the Kingdom that will allow women to be productive in the work place. Such investigation must shed light on the policies and procedures that have been created to facilitate women working and then to see to what extent these have been implemented. It is also necessary to look at the responsibility of society to this issue.

Princess Adelah noted that women are half of the Saudi population of 16,843,200 (2005 figures). But the number of working women was just 494,000 from 5 million women of working age, or only 9 percent of the women available to work. She added that the Kingdom has the lowest percentage in the world — just 5.5 percent — of women in the workforce as a percentage of the total population of women.

“Unemployment for women is on the rise even though job opportunities for women are increasing,” she said.

The weak contribution of women in economic activities also includes a weak contribution to investment activities. Princess Adelah said that women’s bank accounts in Saudi Arabia add up to more than SR100 billion but what is invested from that is only SR42.3 million in a limited number of projects. She attributed this poor investment activity to the unavailability of channels and activities to attract these monies.

The princess went on to list numerous rules and regulations that have been passed in regards to working women. Then she showed that there was some disconnect between policies and actual implementation. For example, she stated that in regards to the Human Resource Development Fund, 93 percent of its programs are for men and just 7 percent are for women.

Princess Adelah also mentioned a report from the National Society for Human Rights, which found that the biggest obstacles to women working come from a culture and tradition that does not approve of women working in certain fields.

Although there are laws in regards to women and work, the princess said there was a need to develop policies that clearly define and assist working women. For example, clear, concise policies should be defined to control the relationship between men and women in the work environment. Princess Adelah also believes that more job opportunities should be enabled for women in the service sector, for instance developing positions in travel agencies and real estate companies. The agencies that make investment loans for women should be encouraged to make it easier for women’s businesses to be funded. In conclusion she advised: “To expand the areas of work for Saudi women it’s needed to collectively work on three issues — creating policies and rules, implementing policies and rules and the responsibility of society toward women working. Segregating dealing with this issue will cause every aspect to rotate around its own access without having any favorable results. All three aspects should be unified under one strategy that will move development forward.”

Bold as Princess Adelah’s presentation was, without a doubt the presentation that resulted in the most reaction and applause from the audience, was the speech from Aljawhera Bint Mohammad Al-Anqari, VP of the National Society for Human Rights, Family Affairs. She spoke on “Discrimination Against Women in Leadership and Decision Making Positions.”

Her speech discussed the discrimination that is happening to women in Saudi and Arab society and whether this should be condoned from an Islamic point of view. She used numerous examples from the Qur’an to support her contention that the discrimination which keeps women from leadership and decision-making positions in Saudi and Arab society is a result of culture and traditions rather than the teachings of Islam.

Al-Anqari observed that such discrimination continues despite the increasing number of educated women — 58 percent of Saudi university students are women. And it is not only in government decision-making positions where women don’t have a presence. “The private sector in the Arab world is very cautious about allowing women into leadership positions — except of course in those firms owned by women,” she said. Even in areas where women are employed extensively, such as the education and health fields, Saudi women don’t fill decision-making positions.

Al-Anqari’s presentation had its positive moments. She remarked that huge strides have been taken in eradicating female illiteracy in Saudi Arabia through government education initiatives, despite the fact that society was against such initiatives when they were started. She also recognized the opportunity given to women to be elected for positions on the boards of Saudi Chambers of Commerce. However, she commented that there is a shortcoming when it comes to the implementation of government policies. “This shows a contradiction between what is being announced and what is being done.” She attributed this to the lack of monitoring and follow-up, and in some cases even to the “outright ignoring of some policies by the men who are supposed to be implementing them.”

She advised that there is a need to recognize women as citizens with an independent identity, rights and responsibilities. Plus, there should be no mixing of Islamic law with culture and tradition. Importantly, more people must demand rights for women.

“There can’t be human rights without women’s rights,” said Al-Anqari. “Everyone has their role in this — governments, the private sector and individuals. The education about these rights starts from the house, the family, the school and even the street. It is basically education for the whole society.”