In the conservative kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Princess Reema Bint Bandar al-Saud, is daring to take on the status quo by actively employing female store clerks in her high-end department store. This is a big deal in a culture where women are restricted from activities that many others take for granted, such as driving and working outside the home.
Just two years ago, only a few women worked at Bandar al-Saud’s luxe Harvey Nichols store in Riyadh. Today, you see several dozen at a time, busily maintaining the displays and mingling with well-heeled shoppers. The Princess isn't alone in this endeavor. While women now only represent 15% of the Saudi workforce, many other business owners are welcoming a more inclusive staff, not only in the interest of equality but because according to some, hiring female employees is better for a company's ROI.
“We are promoting recruitment of Saudi women because they have a low level of attrition, a better attention to detail, a willingness to perform and a productivity about twice that of Saudi men,” said a grocery store manager with branches throughout the kingdom. To mitigate concerns of culturally inappropriate behavior between the two sexes, many employers are providing gender specific break rooms and installing cameras to prevent mingling.
Despite cultural compromises by employers, many face resistance in the kingdom’s more conservative regions. One business owner who tried to employ women faced such an uproar that local police intervened and paid the women a year’s salary to stay home, showing just how far anti-women’s rights activists will go to keep women out of the public eye.
Many working women choose to cover their faces and forgo name tags, preferring to remain anonymous. “Their families don’t necessarily want other people to know that their daughter is working in retail,” said Princess Bandar al-Saud.
In a country with a long history that is deeply entrenched with its modern cultural value system, changes to society are incremental, but increasing numbers of women in the workforce represents a huge alteration to the social fabric of Saudi Arabia. What do you think of this development? How many generations do you think it takes to see real behavioral change, e.g. when employers extend equal opportunities to both women and men.
