JEDDAH, 27 December 2005 — An offhand suggestion by Nadia Baeshen, director of Khadija bint Khowailid Center for businesswomen, at a recent seminar for women to boycott lingerie stores that have male salespersons, has triggered a new round of discussions on the employment of women in these stores.
Baeshen was talking about the need to implement and activate the decisions concerning the employment of women that were presented by the Council of Ministers and endorsed by the Shoura Council by any means even if it requires boycotting the stores selling women’s ware that are still employing men. Women’s reaction to this suggestion varied but the majority did not think it would work.
In September, the Council of Ministers approved the new labor law that allows women to work in all fields that suit their nature and raises the rate of Saudization of jobs in companies to 75 percent. The law instructs the Labor Ministry to establish employment offices for men and women, which will provide free service to job seekers and employers.
The 8th Five-Year Development Plan announced in November also envisaged greater participation of women in economic and development activities by implementing programs to improve their capabilities and removing obstacles that stand in the way of their wider participation.
Deputy Labor Minister Ahmad Al-Zamil said that private institutions have been given two years to submit applications to the Labor Ministry to open women’s sections in their premises in accordance with the new labor law. He said that women are now able to work in all fields, in addition to the selling of lingerie and women’s garments, as long as the occupation complied with certain regulations. Among the regulations is separation between women and men and that the woman’s guardian approves of her working.
Baeshen was suggesting that there might be some resistance by businessmen or other society members to employ women, which would need some aggressive action to enforce the council’s decisions.
Arab News asked some women shoppers whether they would go to the extent of boycotting lingerie stores that are employing men. Although all of them agreed that it is much better to buy from saleswomen for these intimate items some of them had doubts about women’s ability to sell and none of them believe that a boycott would be successful.
“Saudi women don’t have the training or the experience in sales and I don’t like their attitude. I’m used to buying from men, most of them are professional,” said one shopper.
“I think calling for a boycott would have the opposite effect. I prefer buying from women that’s why I shop for these items abroad but some of the young girls don’t mind,” said Saffana. “I don’t agree with all these restrictions and regulations on employing women in stores. They make things difficult for the business owner, the saleswomen and the shoppers but I think implementation should be done gradually not by force,” she added.
Her friend Hanaa agreed saying that there is no need to separate the saleswomen from the men or to shade the display windows as long as the saleswomen are veiled and properly dressed. As for the boycotting, “it will not work now because there are very few stores that employ women which shoppers can go to instead,” she said.
Abdul Wahid Al-Homaid, deputy labor minister for planning and development, said a few days ago at a press conference that the implementation of the council’s decision would begin mid-next year and will start with lingerie stores and then expand to include all stores selling women’s needs. He said that the ministry is in the process of putting regulations that would separate women’s stores and sections in department stores and shopping centers from the men’s. However, he said that the ministry would have a hard time organizing an employment campaign for women similar to the men’s due to the lack of qualified women to manage it. Nevertheless, the ministry had opened three women labor offices in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam to receive women’s job applications.
Meanwhile, the Khadija Center at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry had begun training the women trainers who would then train the saleswomen in the next phase.
“According to the study we did, there are around 700 sales jobs for women in certain locations that we consider suitable for now to implement the training program and consequently hire the girls,” said Samia Filimban, head of the training unit at Khadija Center.
“We had meetings with the store owners, Ministry of Labor, Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice and with the municipality to get all the necessary approvals but there are a few more hurdles that need to be cleared because the store owners don’t want to take any risks of closure or breaking any regulations,” she said.
