For customers of the La Senza lingerie shop at one of Riyadh's glitziest malls, the introduction of women-only sales teams this week ended years of embarrassment. No longer will female clients have to endure male shop assistants while purchasing their inner garments. For the women who stand behind the till, King Abdullah's order last year to make lingerie shops an exclusively female domain also marks a more profound social shift: a step forward for female employment. “I feel happy and independent. I no longer need anyone to support me financially, plus the job itself makes me strong,” said Amani, a young woman wearing a face-covering veil who was serving customers at La Senza. Women account for only 7 percent of Saudis employed by private companies but make up almost half of all Saudis listed as looking for work, according to 2009 government figures. In Saudi Arabia, paid employment has traditionally been seen as an all-male preserve. The fact that even lingerie shops were mostly staffed by men until this week had for years been seen by many Saudi women as an absurdity. “It is very comfortable now. The shop is full of women and one can move freely and ask about anything without feeling embarrassed,” said Heba, a La Senza customer. Social change The move is also bringing about a change in society's mindset. “Ninety-nine percent of the society around me are accepting the situation,” said Amani. “My family supports me a lot. They tell me to do whatever you like as it is your life,” she said, nevertheless declining to give her surname to avoid causing her family embarrassment. King Abdullah has been pushing for reforms in line with the Islamic values. “I think that 2012 will be an extension of government efforts (to empower women) and even scaling up and building on those efforts,” Princess Ameerah Al-Taweel, wife of Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, told Reuters in December. Salary equality Social opposition is not the only challenge in the employment of Saudi women. Given the ban on women driving and lack of good public transport, they need to hire a driver or rely on a male relative who can drop them off. Employers have to conform to segregation requirements that ensure unmarried men and women will not be placed in the sort of unchaperoned proximity. That need for segregated facilities and general preference for government jobs explain the disparity between the 56,000 Saudi women working for private companies and the 295,000 in government posts. Girls' schools and other all-female environments make it much easier to conform to the society's requirements. But for all the difficulties, private companies want to employ Saudi women, who are perceived by some as particularly keen to work hard, said Khaled Al-Khudair, the founder of a women's online employment agency that started up last year. His company, Glowork, advertises nearly 2,000 jobs pitched specifically at Saudi women. He said 7,500 female job applicants have signed up for his site. More women than men graduated from higher education institutions last year, but the labor market has so far failed to catch up. Jarmo Kotilaine, chief economist of National Commercial Bank in Jeddah, said Western countries went through a similar process in the 1960s, before which time educated women frequently did not expect to parlay their degrees into careers. “Later the economic necessities changed this,” he said. But overall change is slow. “My family does not accept the idea that I work in a shop at all,” said Sarah, a sales clerk in another Riyadh lingerie store. “My husband supports me, but on condition that this would be a temporary move till I find a better job in an all-female environment, like a school,” she said.
