Boosting Women's Economic Participation in Saudi Arabia

The Center for Strategic Development (CS) is a newly established government-affiliated think tank dedicated to conducting research in economics, public policy, long-term planning and economic development related to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In an effort to identify ways to boost the participation of women in the Saudi economy, the Center for Strategic Development (CSD) partnered with a Columbia University team to study the main barriers to female employment and entrepreneurship, develop policy recommendations to bridge these gaps, and facilitate existing drivers. In collaboration with CSD, the team collected data on Saudi female labor market participation through a series of interviews, focus groups and surveys, targeting different sections of the Saudi population, and provided recommendations which included training and orientation of bureaucrats to align with rapid policy changes; a platform to promote greater legislative transparency for the private sector; greater focus on equipping men and women with the necessary soft-skills for working in mixed-gender environments; a cash-based transfer to families to incentivize the participation of female family members in the labor force; and lastly, to remove all practices and traditions of guardianship from the legislation.