JEDDAH, 6 September 2006 — The Labor Ministry is studying prospects of expanding job opportunities for Saudi women by allowing them to telecommute, or work from homes or localized work centers by using the Internet as a communication medium with employers. The move is likely to be welcomed by many women as it would provide them greater privacy.
“This employment program will create tens of thousands of job opportunities for women,” one source said.
The ministry is currently making a survey of departments and agencies that can offer women jobs through telecommuting.
The source said the Labor Ministry would coordinate with the Telecommunications and Information Technology Ministry to establish infrastructure facilities required by the new women work centers. The plan augurs well with the e-government system.
Spelling out the merits of the new system, the source said it would help physically handicapped women to get employed, reduce traffic congestion and prevent mixing of sexes at work places.
Muhammad Mandoura, a specialist in information technology and the owner of a consultancy firm, emphasized the project’s feasibility, saying that home-offices are common in the United States, Japan and European countries. Work-at-home freelancers (self-employed individuals such as freelance writers, translators or designers) make up a considerable portion of home-office workers. Telecommuters, employees of a company that work all or part of the time from home via the Internet, make up a sliver of the work force in developed countries.
“This system allows people, especially women, to select the working time suitable for them to complete their assignments,” Mandoura said. “Many things can be done from these work centers,” he said and stressed the need for a field study.
Samar Abdul Rahman, who has a degree in economics and administration, backed the idea. Samar hoped that the new system would help her get a job she was seeking for the last four years.
Nawal Al-Johani had other concerns. She feared that the new system might deprive women of the chance to work at companies outside their homes. Reem, a bank employee, said the jobs available through the new system would be very limited.
Economist Hind Al-Asheikh of King Saud University believes that the new system would be very convenient for women, especially for those who cannot go for work outside because of family and health problems.
Wala Hanafi has carried out a study on telecommuting. According to the study, the system will provide women more independence as a result of the absence of supervisors or bosses. Women can organize their work hours and create a work environment suitable for them. Skeptics point out that productivity is a concern when employees are allowed to self-regulate their schedules from home with little or no supervision.
Hanafi said the system would cut production costs of companies, help them get qualified women employees for relatively smaller wages and reduce the rate of dropouts among the workforce.
According to Hanafi, the system can be implemented in various sectors and industries including information technology, journalism, website designing, data entry, translation, research, consultancy and electronic trade and marketing.
Nearly 250,000 Saudi women currently work at government departments and 45,000 others at private firms. The number of Saudi women is expected to exceed that of their Saudi male counterparts by 2010 when the Saudi population is estimated to cross 26 million, according to a report by the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
