A Ministry of Labor report revealed the majority of the unemployed in Saudi Arabia are women. They constitute 70 percent of the overall rate and 85 percent of them have a secondary education.

Experts say cultural attitudes create hurdles for Saudi woman jobseekers resulting in a relatively high unemployment rate. Others believe factors like job insecurity, lack of transportation, low wages, and discrimination has kept the rate high.

Esam Khalifa, a member of the Saudi Economic Association thinks Saudi women still cannot challenge their work conditions.

They are capable of working in different jobs, are ambitious, and well able to adapt to economic, social, cultural and administrative change.

“Yet there are obstacles preventing women from voicing their concerns to the authorities about problems at work,” he said.

The primary obstacle is tradition. Some members of society want to prevent women from working in areas other than education and child and women-related fields like pediatrics and gynecology, where all employed are women. He believes these attitudes have denied women a role in economic development.

“Creative solutions are needed to change the narrow-minds that continually obstruct women from their right to be employed,” Khalifa said, adding women also have to be prepared to work alongside men in compliance with Shariah.