JEDDAH, 19 July 2005 — The Ministry of Labor is backing off from launching its women’s employment campaign, according to Al-Watan newspaper.
The campaign aims at nationalizing women’s jobs in the private sector and determining women’s unemployment numbers and qualifications.
Al-Watan newspaper quoted a source at the ministry saying that the absence of real job opportunities for women in the private sector made the ministry postpone launching the campaign until “the appropriate work environment” for women at these private institutions is complete.
The “appropriate work environment for women” consists of establishing a separate department for women in existing businesses and removing many of the obstacles that hinder the licensing of new businesses that would employ women.
The source estimated that it would take at least five years to prepare these work environments for women and that many of the obstacles cannot be overcome.
Deputy Minister for Labor Affairs Ahmad Al-Zamil clarified that the ministry intends to launch the campaign after it had surveyed the job opportunities available for women, according to Asharq Al-Awsat. He did not say how long that will take. He said the campaign to employ men is ongoing.
Women asked by Arab News to comment on this delay agreed that there is a need to study the matter before launching the campaign but objected to the time period considering it too long.
“If there is no information to base the campaign on then it is better to do a comprehensive study and work plan for employing women to avoid mistakes. Five years is too long; the study can be done in a year,” said Naila Attar, an administrative and economic consultant.
She pointed out that some companies already have women’s sections and that some jobs do not need a separate women’s department — such as the health sector.
“The work environment is defined by the nature of the job, there is no unified system. Besides, the private sector should have the right to employ or not employ women, they should not be forced to,” she said.
On the other hand, she also pointed out that some private companies that do employ women, do so because women take lower salaries and they do not provide a women-friendly environment such as daycare center and transportation.
“Women suffer from discrimination in the work place. Rather than focusing on establishing separate departments for women, the ministry should regulate the system and give employed women equal rights as men in terms of salaries and promotions,” said Attar.
“Furthermore, delaying the campaign would contribute to increasing the number of unemployed women,” she added.
The head of the specialized business support unit at Khadija bint Khowailid Center for Businesswomen, Nadeen Rasim, said that there is more demand for jobs than there are offers.
“The jobs offered through the unit did not exceed 600 and when we send companies the list of female candidates from our database they do not respond to us or call the women for interviews,” she said.
During the past year since the establishment of the Khadija Center at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, they have found employment for only 60 women. “Either the job opportunities are not real in these companies claiming to have jobs for women or they are not employing them,” said Rasim.
She too believes that there is a need to study the matter in order to define the job opportunities, the job descriptions, and to involve the private sector; but again five years is too long and maybe the campaign can be done gradually.
