The total number of Saudi women working in private and public sectors stands at 350,000, according to the latest figures. The Saudi women population is estimated at 9 million. Of this, 5 million are capable of engaging in productive work, given their education and age.
In all, seven million female workers are recruited from outside Saudi Arabia. They are here to meet a situation arising out of Saudi women staying home. Why do our women stay home? Some of them have wrong assumptions and ideas about work outside and sometimes women are forced to remain at home because of personal or family problems. The presence of foreign workers costs SR60 billion. This is a huge drain on our resources and will continue as long as our women are deprived of the chance to work and are burdened with social responsibilities.
This is only one side of the story. The other is the government’s policies and regulations pressure women to leave work. True, there are statements and remarks from high officials that encourage women to work and stress the importance of their contribution to the nation. But the outlook is not really rosy.
The new labor law issued on Sept. 27 made some changes in maternity leave regulations, a major concern for many workingwomen. Women find harmonizing their motherly responsibilities with work a tough proposition.
Article 151 of the labor law states that: A female worker shall be entitled to a maternity leave for the four weeks immediately preceding the expected date of delivery and the subsequent six weeks. The probable date of delivery shall be determined by the physician of the firm or pursuant to a medical report certified by a health authority. A woman may not work during the six weeks following delivery.
The difference between the new system and the old one is that a woman isn’t obliged to provide a medical report from the Ministry of Health. It can be from any health authority. Women have the right to apply for an optional pregnancy leave and her employer is obliged to comply with her request. She has also a right to maternity leave after she delivers the baby. She is entitled to all her wages during the leave if she worked in the institution for more than three years and half her wages if she worked for one year.
This system applies to women who work in any sector other than the educational sectors. Those colleges, universities and educational institutions that have over 250,000 women employees follow the civil services system. Here, the length of the vacation varies according to Article 22 of leave bylaws that states:
A female worker shall be entitled to maternity leave for a minimum of 40 days and a maximum of 90 days immediately preceding the expected date of delivery. The probable days should be determined according to the mother’s state of health and that of her newborn supported by a medical report from one of the accredited hospitals. If a mother needs to stay home after that, she can avail of sick leave. If the female worker wanted to divert her time and attention to the baby, she could have a period or periods of maternity leave up to three years with a fourth of her wages after the end of the delivery leave mentioned in section A of article 22. She should receive at least SR1,500 a month.
This civil services system was updated last year. The old system didn’t allow women to have a two-month maternity leave with full wages. It was discriminatory. Two months aren’t enough to ensure the infant grows up with normal health. The mother’s adjustment to the new situation will also take more than two months. She might not even recover her health.
The new system that was celebrated recently reduced the leave period to six weeks and any extension is based on a medical report. This means that a woman is entitled to extend her leave by request and she’s not granted the extension as a legal right. She’s given two weeks prior to delivery if she desired, but they are deducted from the total of six weeks and that’s just unfair. People also praised and applauded the article that allows the working mother to get maternity leave up to three years giving her one fourth of the wage and ensuring retirement so that she has the time to look after children. Those who devised this system thought they were doing women a favor.
True, the new law protects a teacher’s years of hard work, but it doesn’t provide her the financial guarantees or security throughout the period of her leave. Giving up three quarters of her wage for this long isn’t appealing unless the mother comes from a very rich family. Unfortunately this isn’t the case with the majority of women.
Most women usually choose to go back to work after the forty days’ leave regardless of the adverse effects it might have on them or their infants. Add to this the pain of being unable to breast-feed the infants or look after them.
If we simply compare the situation with advanced countries, we’ll find that Britain grants mothers 52 weeks as maternity leave — which is a complete year — and they get paid for 39 weeks. Situations differ from time to time according to the system of each institution and each must have a sound maternity leave system for female workers.
Some might say that the birth rate in Britain and other advanced countries is low so they’re trying to encourage women to have more children. But the economic contribution of women in Britain is 44 percent. This means the number of British workingwomen is double the number of Saudi workingwomen and maybe three times.
A nation should encourage women to embrace their motherhood and to utilize their talents and skills for the economic development of their society. But what we’re actually doing is the very opposite as if we have enough women in the business field.
It seems to me that people who come out with such rules and regulations think that their interests clash with that of women. They might comply with some of the international regulations the Kingdom agreed to, but they don’t seem very comfortable doing it. I don’t know when will woman be included within the team that formulate laws concerning the society as a whole and women specifically.
— Hatoon Al-Fassi is a Saudi historian based in Riyadh. She can be reached at: [email protected].
