Session

Management, Business and Economics

Description

The principal goal of Affirmative Action policy around the world is to equalise opportunities and to increase the share of employment for minority groups and females. The Saudi Arabian Affirmative Action is no exception; since 1985, it has been a crucial means of ensuring ‘fair participation’ in employment for Saudi citizens. This policy, known as ‘Saudisation’, aims to tackle labour market issues by replacing the high volume of foreign workers with Saudi nationals. However, one of the major criticisms of the policy has been its failure to increase the number of females in private sector employment. Women still comprise a very low proportion of this sector, compared to men. Nevertheless, some argue that the active role of ‘Saudisation’ has brought some positive changes, as some trends show that women’s share of employment in certain sectors, i.e. banking, has been rising significantly. Nevertheless, the lack of comprehensive data required to analyse the impact of such a policy on women’s employment has made it difficult to determine the extent of its effect. The role of Affirmative Action (Saudisation) in female employment in the private sector in past decades is at the core of the investigation in this study. Unlike former studies on this subject, this research attempts to investigate the long term effect of the policy by applying an event study uniquely suited to a historical exploration of this issue. This method examines variations during the period 1990 to 2014, in order to identify and evaluate the effectiveness of the policy in promoting fair employment for women across the private sector. This will be the first study to document broadly and comprehensively the long-term effect of Saudisation policy on the employment of females in the private sector.

Keywords:

Affirmative Action, Women’s Employment, Private Sector, Saudi Arabia, Saudisation

Session Chair

Ibrahim Krasniqi

Session Co-Chair

Naim Preniqi

Proceedings Editor

Edmond Hajrizi

ISBN

978-9951-437-34-9

First Page

128

Last Page

135

Location

Durres, Albania

Start Date

8-11-2014 9:15 AM

End Date

8-11-2014 9:30 AM

DOI

10.33107/ubt-ic.2014.48

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Nov 8th, 9:15 AM Nov 8th, 9:30 AM

The impact of affirmative action policy on the employment of women in the private sector: the case of Saudi Arabia

Durres, Albania

The principal goal of Affirmative Action policy around the world is to equalise opportunities and to increase the share of employment for minority groups and females. The Saudi Arabian Affirmative Action is no exception; since 1985, it has been a crucial means of ensuring ‘fair participation’ in employment for Saudi citizens. This policy, known as ‘Saudisation’, aims to tackle labour market issues by replacing the high volume of foreign workers with Saudi nationals. However, one of the major criticisms of the policy has been its failure to increase the number of females in private sector employment. Women still comprise a very low proportion of this sector, compared to men. Nevertheless, some argue that the active role of ‘Saudisation’ has brought some positive changes, as some trends show that women’s share of employment in certain sectors, i.e. banking, has been rising significantly. Nevertheless, the lack of comprehensive data required to analyse the impact of such a policy on women’s employment has made it difficult to determine the extent of its effect. The role of Affirmative Action (Saudisation) in female employment in the private sector in past decades is at the core of the investigation in this study. Unlike former studies on this subject, this research attempts to investigate the long term effect of the policy by applying an event study uniquely suited to a historical exploration of this issue. This method examines variations during the period 1990 to 2014, in order to identify and evaluate the effectiveness of the policy in promoting fair employment for women across the private sector. This will be the first study to document broadly and comprehensively the long-term effect of Saudisation policy on the employment of females in the private sector.