Feature
April 19, 2010
Princess Reema Discusses Women in Saudi Workforce
While women continue to shatter the proverbial glass ceiling in offices across the United States, the equality of women in the workplace in Saudi Arabia remains a step behind—an imbalance highlighted by Her Royal Highness Princess Reema Bint Bandar Al-Saud at a Harris School event on April 8.
Her Highness, the president and chief executive of luxury retail companies ALFA International and AL HAMA LLC, said women in Saudi Arabia—like women worldwide—must weigh the benefits of working against the potentially negative impact of having one less parent at home. But for women in Saudi Arabia, other factors can also come into play that may stop them, including laws prohibiting them from driving. To level the playing field, Her Highness, who was raised and educated in Washington D.C., said she offers a transportation allowance to her female employees so that they are not forced to hire drivers to get to work, an expense that would make employment less economically viable. “There’s a cost for that, but it’s a necessary cost,” she said.
Employment practices like this have made her company a symbol of progress in Saudi Arabia. Her Highness currently employs 25 women at her ALFA company, which owns the license to sell goods from England-based luxury department store Harvey Nichols. Many of the women at ALFA work in the buying department or in sales, a major departure from a cultural taboo that frowns on women selling clothing to men.
These barriers to equality have started to dissolve in recent years, Her Highness points out, though there’s still a long way to go. Women now represent nearly half of the country’s total population, but only make up 14 percent of its workforce, according to Basmah Al Omair, the executive director of a businesswomen and lobbying center at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who also spoke at the Harris School event. The Saudi law prohibiting women from sharing the workplace with men was only abolished in 2006, and some employers have still been reluctant to integrate female workers with men, she said.
Al Omair’s five-year-old center lobbies for more rights in the workplace and helps train Saudi women for careers. In 2008 alone, the center secured the approval of the Ministry of Trade to allow women to serve as board members in private companies and helped establish a code of conduct between male and female employees to prohibit discrimination and harassment, she explained.
Al Omair also highlighted the history of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia during the Harris School lecture, which was organized by the Harris School’s recently-formed Islam & Public Policy Discussion Group. Nada Abuissa, a second-year Harris School student and co-founder of the student organization, said Her Highness’s employment practices in Saudi Arabia demonstrate how Islamic culture has evolved, and how women are gaining momentum in their fight for autonomy in the Middle East.
- By Lauren Shepherd
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