The number of women with jobs in Saudi Arabia “has nearly doubled in the last five years and now stands at over 35 per cent of the workforce,” a top official in Saudi Arabia said this week, according to comments reported by The National.
Abdullah Abuthnain, the Saudi deputy minister of human resources and social development, said on Tuesday that the number of women in work was at “the highest level in the kingdom’s history” as the government seeks to introduce reforms and boost women’s rights.
Bringing women into the workforce is one of the top priorities in Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. But Arab women’s participation in the labor force still has a way to go, and is among the the lowest in the world, despite being highly educated.
Since 2018, Saudi Arabia has allowed women to drive, live alone, work outside the home and travel without the permission of a male guardian. Increasingly, more jobs previously off limits to Saudi women are available to them.
According to a report in The National, Vision 2030 reforms have benefited about six million Saudi women over the age of 21.
