WE must first commend the achievements of young Saudi women. However, we must also emphasize the fact that the current laws regulating women's work in the private sector have turned the work environment into a place that most young women try to avoid and run away from. We are optimistic, though. We believe that the recent state budget will diversify sources of income and create more job opportunities for men and women in better environments. I recently read some reports focusing on the problems in work places where women are employed. They all agreed that the main problem lies in the fake Saudization of women's jobs. Why this is the main problem is beyond me. Is there really a big problem in Saudizing women's jobs and is there a shortage of female workers? Who is responsible for creating this work environment that has contributed to perpetuating this negative image about Saudi society, especially about female workers? Efforts to create job opportunities for Saudi women have been made by Riyadh's Educational Department and the Minister of Education which have given productive families a chance to provide catering services to schools which will end the role of expatriate workers in this field. We have to stand by similar productive Saudi families. If these families prove over time that they can provide clean and healthy food, then other regions will follow suit and give similar families the same responsibility. This will create real job opportunities for Saudi women, not fake ones. If we were to assume that each family consists of five Saudi ladies and caters to three schools, then a large number of jobs will be created in this sector. We have over 30,000 schools. The fake Saudization cases involving Saudi women began to emerge when some contracting companies and retailers presented their lists of employees to the Ministry of Labor for inspection. There is no doubt that registering 477,000 Saudi women in the General Organization of Social Insurance is a great success for the Saudization of women's jobs. The ministry imposes a fine of SR25,000 for each fake Saudization case which it discovers. It also monitors the salaries of employees in large companies. The contracting sector is a promising one and 120,000 of the employees in this sector fill administration support positions and represent only three percent of the total number of employees in the sector, which is 5 million. This is a large number if we compare it with the Saudi population and the number of expatriate workers. It is important that we empower women and create job opportunities for them in this sector in order to replace expatriate workers. For example, Princess Noura Bint Abdulrahman University should give special attention to employing women and creating jobs for Saudi women within administration support. Saudi businesswomen should set up contracting companies that hire only Saudi women. The work environment for women should be improved and made enticing. It should also be free from all forms of harassment. Strict penalties should be imposed on harassers.
