18/04/2009
During a workshop organized by the Business Women's Center of Asharqia Chamber and The National Women's Committee with the Asharqia Board, emphasis was placed on the importance of opening women's branches inside the major companies in the Kingdom and to allow women to work in businesses that cater to women. This was suggested as a possible solution to the problem of unemployment amongst women.
The workshop, under the leadership of businesswoman Wajdaan Al-Saeed, stressed the need to begin diagnosing the current problems facing working women by organizing with the labor office in the Eastern Region in order to identify work opportunities, observe the challenges working women face in the private sector and develop a plan to improve the working environment for women.
They also affirmed the need to protect job opportunities available for women right now, and determine the reason that women have been reluctant to work in the private sector by identifying the strong as well as the weak points of the working environment.
They also called for the opening of female branches within companies, to provide adequate transportation for women, to pursue the necessary steps to organize separate workplaces for women, and to create a progressive work culture that recognizes the expertise of women.
The Manager of the Business Women's Center, Hind Al-Zahid, said that her center has asked companies on behalf of Asharqia Chamber to count the number of vacant jobs that are available to women in the 68 official job categories and to organize with the National Organization for Comprehensive Training to hire trained women in those fields. However, companies only reported two jobs even though there are any trained women.
Bedriyyah Al-Uthmaan, the Manager of Al-Birr Charitable Foundation, said "A women's job training center has been opened to train women to fill needed positions in response to business projects aimed at creating jobs for women. They even set aside some places for the handicapped who don't have workers rights or job security."
