5 things women in Saudi Arabia want at work
Women in Saudi Arabia might not be able to drive or vote. But the
overwhelming majority would like to have a job, and most don’t mind
working with men as long as they can gain work
experience.
That’s what a new survey by Glowork, the
Riyadh-based job-enabling portal for women, revealed this week,
after polling 500 women at 10 of Saudi Arabia’s universities.
The gender gap in Saudi Arabia is one of the largest in the world,
made more stark by the fact that these women will outnumber
men in university, making up
57% of graduates, yet only
20% of them will likely participate in the workforce.
This next generation is primed to change that, however, as most
want part-time work, and don't need wasta,
or personal connections, to get it. Here's what else they're
seeking:
They’d like to administrate, and most don’t mind working
along with men.
Most women (61%) want to work in administration, and the
overwhelming majority (70%) said they would either prefer to work
in a mixed or semi-mixed environment or had no preference; only a
minority preferred female-only environments.
The next most popular sector after administration was tourism,
where 17% of women aspired to work. Perhaps, Glowork pointed out,
hiring women could help new companies focusing on tourism, travel,
or hotels to take advantage of the sector’s untapped
opportunity.
They prefer job sites to wasta.
Only 10% of women polled said that friends and family were the best
way to get a job, and only 11% admitted to using their personal
connections to find employment. The majority of women (72%) said
that they were using either recruitment websites or newspaper and
magazine ads to find jobs.
They'd like help with CVs.
18% of Saudi women polled had never written a CV, and 36% had never
asked for help.
Some commented that they would pay up to 500 Saudi riyals (US $133) for an outsider to prepare their CV (perhaps they haven’t heard of services like Tickle My Brain).
Some weren’t even sure what their CV should look like; when
asked “Which type of CVs do you write as a fresh graduate?”, and
given a choice between a chronological and a functional CV, a
whopping 39% responded “I don’t know.”
They're pursuing English and computer science
skills.
38% said that English was the number one skill that would help them
secure a job, while 33% wanted to improve in computer skills. Only
4% said that better customer service skills would help with
employment.
They're not very focused on salaries, but want
experience.
These women, however, were focused on the type of work far more
than the number of hours; 80% said that the type of job or the
workplace were far bigger concerns. Only 7% considered either
working hours or their salary the biggest factors.
Alkhudair pointed this out in the press release, saying that most
of the women surveyed were focused on gaining experience, not
making money.
This isn't surprising; many of the women Wamda for Women spoke to
in both
Qatar and
Saudi Arabia noted that women are not expected to be
breadwinners or even providers in the their families; this might
encourage a focus on skills rather than income; however, many of
the women we spoke to said that this norm also made it extremely
challenging to negotiate for higher salaries.
As women, we’re already
not well-received when we play hardball; it’s certainly not
easier in the Gulf.
Initiatives like Glowork will help, however. As a one-stop shop for
career advice for women, Glowork also makes it possible for women
to work flexible hours from home via an online platform. The
company aims to create over 500,000 jobs for women in Saudi Arabia
over the next five years.