For decades, Saudi women seeking work were offered limited opportunities and the few who did find work were mostly restricted to the health and education sectors.
Add to that the kingdom’s guardianship system which also gave male relatives the right to object to the women’s professional aspirations.
But change came in mid-2016 when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled his Vision 2030 plan aimed at diversifying the kingdom’s economy and ending its addiction to oil.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Now, the efforts to embrace women into all forms of society are paying off and Saudi Arabia is rising up the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law (WBL) Report, a global measure of female-focused legal reforms.
On a scale of 1 to 100, the kingdom scored 80, up nearly 10 points on the previous year, just behind the UAE and well ahead of other Gulf countries in the rankings.
Out of eight categories, it scored a maximum 100 in five – mobility, workplace, pay, entrepreneurship, and pension. These scores put Saudi Arabia on a par with many advanced economies with long traditions of women legal reforms.
The report said the kingdom still had room for improvement in its legislation on marriage, parenthood and assets.
Recently, Saudi Arabia equalised women’s access to all types of jobs in the labour market, lifted restrictions on their employment in sectors previously considered unsafe, and eliminated the ban on women’s night work.
Dr Majed Al-Kassabi, Minister of Commerce and chairman of the National Competitiveness Centre, said the latest figures reflect King Salman’s “commitment to enabling Saudi women to fully participate in the social and economic development of their country”.
Dr Majed Al-Kassabi, Minister of Commerce and chairman of the National Competitiveness Centre.
In comments published by Saudi Press Agency, he added that the report also reflects the “unwavering attention” of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to ensuring an effective whole-of-government approach to implementing women legal reforms.
Saudi Arabia’s new reforms build on previous measures, including lifting restrictions on women’s mobility, equalising access to public services, guaranteeing equal benefits in the labour market and instituting protections against harassment in the workplace and in public spaces.
Across the Gulf region, Saudi Arabia ranked second behind the UAE (82.5) which itself has implement a number of reforms to further encourage women to play an active role in society.
Bahrain (55.6), Oman (35.6), Qatar (29.4) fared less well in the World Bank report while Kuwait was deemed the least female-friendly country in the region, scoring just 28.8 out of 100.
In the UAE, the report said reforms implemented between September 2019 and October 2020 included allowing women to choose where to live and to travel abroad in the same way as men and allowing a woman to get a job without permission from her husband.
The UAE’s score compared to 56 points in the 2020 edition and 29 points in the 2019 edition.
On pay, the UAE also mandated equal remuneration for work of equal value while it no longer requires a married woman to obey her husband.
The UAE also introduced five days of paid parental leave as an individual entitlement for each parent while fathers now have paid leave to care for their newborn children.
The UAE’s score compared to 56 points in the 2020 edition and 29 points in the 2019 edition.
Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, president of the UAE Gender Balance Council, said the massive strides made by the UAE in the report are the result of new laws and more than 20 legislative reforms focused on enhancing women’s economic participation.
She said these achievements are significant additions to the UAE’s scientific, economic and social accomplishments that are set to propel the country’s accelerated progress in the next 50 years.
Bahrain scoring 55.6 out of 100
According to the report, reforms in Bahrain included making job opportunities more equal for men and women by eliminating discriminatory restrictions on women’s employment in arduous jobs.
Bahrain also made access to credit easier for women by prohibiting gender-based discrimination in financial services while it also explicitly accounted for periods of absence due to childcare in pension benefits.
In Kuwait, legislation has been enacted to protect women from domestic violence.
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Globally, the World Bank said countries are inching toward greater gender equality, but women around the world continue to face laws and regulations that restrict their economic opportunity, with the Covid-19 pandemic creating new challenges to their health, safety, and economic security.
Reforms to remove obstacles to women’s economic inclusion have been slow in many regions and uneven within them, according to its report which said, on average, women have just three-quarters of the legal rights afforded to men.
Women were already at a disadvantage before the pandemic, and government initiatives to buffer some of its effects, while innovative, have been limited in many countries, the report noted.
“Women need to be fully included in economies in order to achieve better development outcomes,” said David Malpass, World Bank Group president. “Despite progress in many countries, there have been troubling reversals in a few, including restricting women’s travel without the permission of a male guardian.
David Malpass, World Bank Group president.
“This pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities that disadvantage girls and women, including barriers to attend school and maintain jobs. Women are also facing a rise in domestic violence and health and safety challenges. Women should have the same access to finance and the same rights to inheritance as men and must be at the centre of our efforts toward an inclusive and resilient recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.”
The Women, Business and the Law report measures how laws and regulations affect women’s economic opportunity in 190 economies. it analyses economic rights during different milestones in a woman’s working life through eight indicators ranging from being able to move freely to rights in the workplace, through rights during marriage and after having children, how the law prevents or allows them to run their own businesses and manage assets all the way to retirement.
Overall, the report found that many governments have put in place measures to address some of the impacts of the pandemic on working women. For example, less than a quarter of all economies surveyed in the report legally guaranteed employed parents any time off for childcare before the pandemic.
Since then, in light of school closures, nearly an additional 40 economies around the world have introduced leave or benefit policies to help parents with childcare. Even so, these measures are likely insufficient to address the challenges many working mothers already face, or the childcare crisis.
“While it is encouraging that many countries have proactively taken steps to help women navigate the pandemic, it’s clear that more work is needed, especially in improving parental leave and equalising pay,” said Mari Pangestu, managing director of Development Policy and Partnerships, The World Bank.
“Countries need to create a legal environment that enhances women’s economic inclusion, so that they can make the best choices for themselves and their families.”
Despite the pandemic, 27 economies in all regions and income groups enacted reforms across all areas and increased good practices in legislation in 45 cases during the year covered, the report found. The greatest number of reforms introduced or amended laws affecting pay and parenthood.
However, the World Bank also said that parenthood is the area that leaves the most room for improvement globally. This includes paid parental leave, whether benefits are administered by the government, and whether the dismissal of pregnant women is prohibited.
Reforms are also needed to address the restrictions women face in the type of jobs, tasks, and hours they can work, segregating them into lower paid jobs. And in 100 economies, laws do not mandate that men and women be paid the same for equally valued jobs, the report showed.
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