Two article of interest in the Arab News on women’s employment today…

Saudi Postal Services to Train and Employ Women
Javid Hassan, Arab News

RIYADH, 5 July 2005 — Muhammed Saleh Benten, president of the Saudi Postal Corporation (SPC), has announced that women will soon be employed in the Saudi postal service. The president said that the first step toward employing women would be a training program for them.

The decision to appoint Saudi women in the postal service is part of a trend to employ them in key sectors of the economy and in government service. DHL Saudi Arabia has hired its first Saudi woman and other women have found jobs in small businesses, fashion design, factory assembly lines, technical jobs, tourism and handicrafts in addition to IT jobs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

a href=”http://tinyurl.com/cfruo”>Saudi Saleswomen Already at the Counters
Ebtihal Mubarak & Somayya Jabarti

JEDDAH, 5 July 2005 — There are shops and stores in the Kingdom that have beaten the Labor Ministry’s deadline for employing Saudi women. Saudi women have already been working in them for several years.

Woman’s Kingdom, an all-women’s floor in the Kingdom Center in Riyadh, is an illustration of women’s abilities to manage and staff shops and store. The floor includes coffee shops, women’s wear shops, and children’s shops. In such a place, a woman can roam freely and at leisure — and has been able to do so for four years.

The writers–both Saudi women–note how women are getting more doors opened for them when it comes to job, but also pushing the doors open themselves. The government–which holds hundreds of thousands of jobs–needs to make a fair share of them available to women. But the private sector is moving faster than the government, or the government can, for that matter. Businesses can make decisions based on what makes sense to them and, clearly, putting qualified women to work makes sense. Governments, though, have more people standing by to criticize and second-guess any decision made, particularly in a consensus-based society like Saudi Arabia.

A companion article, though, shows that even when decisions are made by a combination of private and public sector interests, smooth sailing isn’t guaranteed:

Women’s Department Stores: A Solution With Problems
Somayya Jabarti & Ebtihal Mubarak

JEDDAH, 5 July 2005 — Most shopowners and salespeople are not overly enthusiastic about establishing shops staffed by Saudi women that sell women’s clothing and personal items. They say the Labor Ministry’s new directive which mandates hiring Saudi saleswomen in women’s shops will create problems rather than bringing about a solution to the cultural issue of making women’s wear the exclusive domain of women—for and by women.

This article notes several of the many problems that will accompany the government’s decision that women should be employed to sell clothing–including lingerie–to other women. That is not the status quo and enforcing it will cause many disruptions, from the salesforce, of course, to window displays. It’s an interesting article, though many of the complaints are just so much cavilling in the face of any change. Do read it!