JEDDAH: The Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) on Saturday announced its official support for a campaign that wishes to replace salesmen with saleswomen at shops that sell lingerie and women’s wear in the Kingdom.
“The JCCI joined the campaign to beef up its efforts to find greater employment opportunities for women,” said Lama Al-Suleiman, deputy chairperson of the JCCI.
Al-Suleiman said the campaign would result in huge numbers of wealthy Saudi women shopping in local markets instead of traveling to Dubai, Bahrain or Egypt to shop.
She added that she hopes employing women in shops that sell women’s wear would result in increased sales for businessmen, and that the JCCI plans to organize training programs for saleswomen.
She also stressed the importance of media campaigns to attract women to work in shops that sell women’s wear.
Saudi women should strive to achieve advanced training in sales and marketing techniques to dispel their image as lazy and unskilled, the deputy chairperson said. “Negative images will have a negative impact on the female job market,” she added.
Since the launch of the campaign in October, several bodies have declared their support for it. For instance, Jeddah Municipality has speeded up the issuing of licenses to shops that appoint female workers.
The campaign is also being supported by the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.
According to some informed sources, more than 200,000 women are expected to find employment in markets across the Kingdom over the next five years as a direct result of the campaign.
