The full participation of women in next year’s municipal elections is a highly significant step. The Council of Ministers has just given legislative form to the ground-breaking announcement made at the 2011 poll by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.

As the king intended, women will now be able to stand for office as well as cast their votes. This is the latest move in a process he initiated in 2009, when he appointed the first female as the deputy education minister. At the start of last year the king decreed that at least 20 percent of the Shoura Council should be females. He went on to appoint 30 women in what has been judged as highly successful development.

Not only have the female members contributed successfully to debates but their very presence has had a transformational effect. Their involvement on the Shoura Council’s various committees has added to the specialist consideration of important areas.

Over the last 18 months, the newly-constituted Shoura council has been seen as a potent demonstration that women are able to make a valuable contribution to Saudi society outside home. Of course, especially in the private sector as well as in medicine, there have already been many examples of successful women taking on important and leading roles. Women are having an ever-greater impact in public affairs, from the Shoura Council to, as of next year, the running of the Kingdom’s towns and cities.

There is of course a conservative train of thought, which includes some women, that is uneasy at these changes. The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has admitted this month that it has put on hold plans to recruit female officers to its exclusively male ranks.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are those willing to break the law in a campaign to allow women drivers.

Such activism worries those who believe that the strength of Saudi society has always been its cautious evolution.

Calls for equality are meaningless unless they are placed in some context. On the Shoura Council, there is no difference between male and female members. They have the same rights and responsibilities.

This equality seems likely to carry over into municipal councils where women are elected. It is of course inevitable that there will be tensions. A few will struggle to accept and work with female councilors. The majority, especially younger councilors, are likely to accept and indeed, positively welcome the arrival of women.

In setting out the new municipalities law the Council of Ministers chaired by Crown Prince Salman included a provision that each council should not include more than 30 members.

A third of these would be appointed by the Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs. Thus in the event of a low turnout by first-time women voters, the government has the means to ensure that councils are given a proportionate number of females.

In the end it is not only right, but it is inevitable that Saudi women will play a greater role in every part of the life of the Kingdom. The Saudization campaign is advancing, though maybe not as fast as hoped. All the same, more and more roles currently filled by expatriates need to be taken up by locals. Joblessness, most especially among young people, is a pressing issue. Jobs are needed for males, as well as females.

Gender discrimination in the workplace is by no means an exclusively Saudi issue. Even in countries which say they are dedicated to equal opportunities for both men and women, there are imbalances. For instance in the UK, the railroad company has just been involved in a court case which revealed that it has consistently been paying its females employees significantly less for doing precisely the same job as male employees.

In addition, it seems that women in the workplace feel they have something to prove. Anecdotal evidence suggests — that is the experience of many employers in the Kingdom — that their female staff work as hard, if not indeed harder, than their mail employees. In short Saudi women earn their salaries. In so doing they are helping themselves and others to a greater and more important role in wider society.

These developments may be taking place too slowly for some. However others would argue for the cautious and thoughtful approach which characterizes these and so many other areas of change in the Kingdom.