Saudi Arabia boosts women's roles.

Saudi Arabia is considering changing some of its restrictive policies directed at limiting the participation of women in the country's economic life. The Kahleej Times (Dubai) learned recently that the Saudi government is planning to undertake a study of the role of women in the country's economy. Some of the goals expressed by Saudi Arabia's 8th Five-Year Plan (2005-2009) are to enlarge the scope of economic activities available for women, encourage the participation of women in the labor force, open more economic sectors women, and importantly, encourage women to think about science as an appropriate career. The study is being designed to provide the information to support these goals.

One of the steps being considered to realize the goals as set forth in the Plan is to take a look at current regulations and see what needs to be done to modify or eliminate them to open the economy further to women. The Plan also recognizes the need to begin to build awareness at various levels of Saudi society to accept the idea of employment for women. Government jobs for women will be explored, too, says the Times.

Other parts of the plan focus on long term policies needed to support women who want to work. The objective is to lower the unemployment rate for women. In keeping with this objective, the Plan wants government and private organizations to provide counseling for women for whom the novelty of employment may be stressful.

The Saudi Plan goes beyond employment to address the entrepreneurial and investing ambitions of the country's women. According to the Times many Saudi women have access to idle funds, which they could be using not only to provide employment for themselves--as traders--but also as an asset to the Saudi economy as a whole.

Currently, most working women in Saudi Arabia are employed by the government. Women made up 30 percent of the government's workforce in 2003. Most of these women are employed in education, approximately 83.4 percent. Another 5.4 percent of the women employed by the government have jobs in the healthcare arena. This high concentration of women in these limited areas signals few educational opportunities for women many of whom do not have advanced degrees.

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