Huda Al-Jeraisy, the chairwoman of the Executive Council at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, chairwoman of the National Committee for Women at the CSCCI and a prominent businesswoman, is yet another role model. She is there indeed to demand rights for businesswomen.
“We want to eliminate all obstacles for businesswomen and entrepreneurs in the region,” Al-Jeraisy said in explaining her tasks at the RCCI.
In 2004, the women’s branch in RCCI was launched with a mission to improve the bureaucratic procedures of paper authentication and permits. However, with women desiring to become as effective as men, the branch gradually began to redirect the services to the RCCI from training, consulting, examining obstacles for businesswomen and participating in committees that had previously been exclusively for men.
“Now, women are participating in all committees in the chamber, whether the labor committee or the investment committee. There is only one committee established by the women’s branch and that is the tailor shops and beauty salons committee. No businessmen are investing so that is why it’s exclusive for women,” Al-Jeraisy added.
One of the achievements of the women’s branch is the Businesswomen’s Cultural Forum, which took place on May 16-18 this year for the fifth year. The forum entitled “Your House is Your Business” focused on home businesses in the region and the lack of permits for home and family businesses.
Al-Jeraisy, who was a member of the organizing committee for the forum, said that their goal was to provide job opportunities, invest in woman power and produce commodities for the market.
On the opening day of the forum, the committee launched a website to market for free the products prepared by families. The website will enable the productive families to display their products directly to consumers without an intermediary —
http://www.riyadhchamber.com/famm.php
“There is a high demand for working from home and we are trying to push the authorities to give permits for home businesses,” Al-Jeraisy said.
However, the number of home businesses is not available. Al-Jeraisy said it was hard to give a figure because they were not registered anywhere. “We believe that approximately some 10,000 women are working from home in the Kingdom,” she added.
Al-Jeraisy said that Ministerial Council Resolution 120 for Women, which consists of nine articles, if implemented correctly, would resolve many issues concerning women. “It’s a decision that concerns labor laws and women working in the private sector. If businesswomen’s investment issues were resolved, then women’s business projects will continue and prosper and, at the same time, provide job opportunities for women,” she added.
Al-Jeraisy also said that women were demanding the authorities facilitate the issuing of permits, provide women’s sections in government departments, ease procedures, create job opportunities for women and make rules for part-time jobs.
“Part-time jobs and home businesses don’t provide social insurance and they don’t have a system and rules. Let’s say I gave someone money to do a project from home; the hours she worked at home on this project are not countable. We need to set basics so we make sure people get their rights,” she said.
One of the articles in the resolution is home business, which she referred to as distance working. “Although there is a decision to give permits for home businesses, nothing has happened until now. However, the Ministry of Social Affairs is the only authority that gives letters to support poor productive families.
To some authorities productive families are only the needy ones but in fact they should include families or women working from home. “We are demanding an organized plan with permits and classifications whether it’s one woman working from home or a whole productive family,” Al-Jeraisy explained.
The slow pace of bureaucracy (particularly when it comes to getting permission to set up a company), the need to have the consent of a male guardian, the rule that women in business have to employ a male manager and are not allowed to drive are the main concerns of women’s branches in chambers around the Kingdom.
Al-Jeraisy, in her position in the RCCI and the CSCCI, said that most difficulties were common between all chambers in the Kingdom. “The permit issue is one of our main dilemmas because it’s a matter for the authorities and we have to push to make things happen,” she added. Al-Jeraisy gave the example of beauty salons which, until now, don’t require a permit and operate under a tailor shop permit. According to Al-Jeraisy, the beauty salon permit has to be decided through a royal decree and the Council of Ministers because there is a “fatwa” concerning some areas of this business.
One the biggest obstacles to women entrepreneurs remains unsolved. Businesswomen must hire a male manager to conduct affairs with various government organizations and administer the business. This condition came in April 2004 when a ministerial decree stated that when the business was aimed at both men and women, the businesswoman could own the establishment but she had to hire a Saudi man to manage the business. On the other hand, she can own and manage her business if her work employs and caters only to women — which was not the case before as women were required to have a legal male agent in all cases.
Despite the dilemma, Al-Jeraisy said clever businesswomen would give minimum control and power to the manager. “The male manager shouldn’t be given power beyond looking over the company. In the contract the businesswoman should allow minimum control and never give him the power to buy and sell for example,” she explained.
There has been significant progress from both the private sector and government institutions to help women be trained and gain office skills.
Al-Jeraisy, who is the general manager of Al-Areeba for Ladies’ Skills which provides administrative and finance training and recruitment services and also the general manager of ELS Language centers in Riyadh, had the same problems as any other businesswoman when establishing her business.
“My centers are for training; therefore I had to get a permit from the Ministry of Education, a permit for the place from the municipality, the commercial registration and a permit from the Civil Defense for security,” said Al-Jeraisy explaining the problems she had when setting up her business.
Al-Areeba Training Center, however, took six months and the English Language Center began in November 2009 but until now, the permits have not been completed due to bureaucracy. “The center is running and if anyone questions me, I will ask what do you do when my papers are in the ministries waiting to be processed?” she said.
The traditional nature of Saudi society is a major obstacle to some businesswomen such as Al-Jeraisy. “There is not enough respect for workingwomen from their families. If the employee is married, her husband can simply stop her from going to work. Then I find myself stuck without an employee,” she added.
Al-Jeraisy criticized some aspects of Saudization after suffering many times from women employees leaving their jobs after being trained. “The Saudization in administrative work is compulsory 100 percent. We are not allowed to hire non-Saudis in this field. In my English Language Center we are teaching language so I need non-Saudis who are fluent. Are Saudis qualified to teach languages? We need balance; when I have three administrators and all of them are absent, then what can I do? If Saudization were 90 percent, then it would be fine.
Whether it’s cultural norms, government bureaucracies or the slow pace of reform, Saudi pioneering businesswomen are in charge and they are definitely taking action to open the doors for generations to come.
