Ghada Ismail
Saudi Arabia, the once closed conservative society, has witnessed a dramatic shift that changed the landscape of female entrepreneurship in the Kingdom forever. This change aligns with a broader vision, Vision 2030, a socioeconomic set of reforms introduced in January 2016 by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman which has been the key driver of this drastic transformation in the first place.
Vision 2030 came with a focus on empowering Saudi women, encouraging their contribution to the economy and participation in social development and female entrepreneurship has been increasingly recognized in the kingdom since then.
With Saudi women now significantly taking part in society and the workforce, businesses are presented with rising opportunities targeting Saudi women in their hiring process as they are becoming an integral part of the country’s economic development, as well as its consumer market.
Vision 2030 introduced Saudi women to new levels of leadership and economic empowerment. In Saudi Arabia, female entrepreneurs took the lead and now seized a significant tranche of the entrepreneurial scene, establishing and managing more small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The number of female entrepreneurs has surged by more than 35% over the last decade, capped at almost two-fifths of entrepreneurs in the country in 2017.
Saudi Government empowering its daughters
In this regard, the Saudi Government saved no effort to take every possible measurement to encourage and prepare female leaders to break the barriers and storm the world of businesses. The Kingdom has introduced new legislation to facilitate the establishment of business startups and financing for women-owned businesses with an only aim: Eliminate the once had been boundaries and establish a more supportive environment for women entrepreneurs.
In the same context, Banks and financial institutions have relaxed collateral requirements and introduced creditworthiness evaluation schemes that are more inclusive of women entrepreneurs for further financial support.
Moreover, the Kingdom saw governmental entities and public organizations investing in entrepreneurship and skills development programs for women providing education, training, mentoring, and networking opportunities, equipping female entrepreneurs with the necessary knowledge and skills to succeed in business, in addition to establishing entrepreneurship hubs and launching initiatives to promote entrepreneurship among young women.
On its official website, the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development included a list of initiatives that obviously reflect the great attention from the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on women’s file to ensure an increase in women’s participation in the labor market.
The list displayed a variety of measurements mainly taken to ease up a woman’s journey to contribute to her local economy. Taking its part in Vision 2030, the Saudi Ministry of Finance issued a report namely “Women Empowerment Initiative within the Saudi Annual Budget” which tackles almost every decree, procedure, and policy taken by each ministry, and official entity within all sectors since the launch of the Vision 2030, in terms of budgeting and financing.
As a result of this huge momentum taking place in the Saudi kingdom, reports and stats dedicated to monitoring the female entrepreneurial scene became pretty much overwhelming! The Saudi General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) published a report namely “Saudi Women’s Report 2022” mainly aimed to display statistics on the female entrepreneurship situation showcasing the leading indicators involving women’s participation in the Saudi Economy.
The report focuses on providing figures relating to Saudi women aged 15 and above in different fields, such as education, health, sports, and technology, as well as other statistics, relying on official sources. The sources extract data from surveys carried out by GASTAT and data from the administrative register available to other official bodies.
The report showed that the unemployment rate among Saudi women declined, especially in the fourth quarter of 2022, to 15.4% compared to 2021, 2020, and 2019.
Coming in parallel with the significant decline in women's unemployment, the expansion of their economic participation, and the surged growth of their employment in various areas, the ratio of employed women to the population rose to 30.4% from the fourth quarter of 2021, where the rate was previously 27.6%. Women's participation in the labor market was capped at 36%, up slightly from 35.6% in the fourth quarter of 2021.
On the other hand, the number of freelance certificates obtained by females in 2021 reached 961,189 compared to 105,518 registered in 2020 and 7,997 registered in 2019, which is the lowest.
The report also showed that the stock market had witnessed a significant soar in female investment rates recently, as the number of Saudi women investors in the stock market in 2021 reached 1,516,995, a higher number than that recorded in the previous two years of 2019 and 2020.
Women empowering women
What the Saudi Kingdom witnessed afterward was really phenomenal! Women broke the glass ceiling and started empowering themselves and each other. With the rapid rise of business incubators and accelerators due to the natural demand and need for them in the market, emerged an accelerator that defines itself as: “Saudi Arabia's First Tech-Inclusion & Female Focused Accelerator, Offering Different Business Services For Your Startup to Blossom!”
Founded by a woman and dedicated to all ‘enterpreneurelles’, Blossom was launched in April 2018 fueled by Emon Shakor’s desire to help young Saudi female founders like herself to rise and shine. The accelerator has since said to mentor more than 300 startup companies from around 38 different cities in five countries, including the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the USA.
Worth mentioning, Shakoor is a Saudi neuroscience researcher, a technology entrepreneur, and startup catalyst who earned herself a degree in cognitive sciences from the University of California, San Diego, and then worked at Parexel, a US clinical research and biopharmaceutical company, where she led hundreds of Pfizer clinical drug trials across North America. Shakoor has also become one of the Global Shapers Community in Jeddah Hub, a delegate of the 30 Under 30 group at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, as well as a TEDx speaker on topics ranging from neuroscience and innovation to youth and women's empowerment, equity and inclusion.
